February 23, 2001 12:17: TEACHERS at Hatters Lane School in High Wycombe will all have to reapply for their jobs when the school reopens under a new name Highcrest Community School in September.

But they will get higher pay, more training and spend less time in the classroom.

There should also be more teachers on the payroll so that class sizes can come down.

In addition work should be underway before September on a new sports hall, assembly hall and gym, new computer facilities, and improvements to the library, science labs and art and technology facilities, as well as youth and community facilities.

The money will come from the Government's Fresh Start scheme, which puts more money into the annual budget for the next three years and more capital for building work. Fresh Start also wipes out the school's budget deficit of £800,000, built up over four years.

Just how much money will come from the Government is not yet known.

A project team led by area education officer Bob Gibbard has just put its shopping list to the DfEE. "They are now climbing all over it," he said

Hatters Lane's need for Fresh Start was sparked by a bad Ofsted report which criticised teaching and learning, pupil behaviour and motivation and the school's leadership.

But things are now definitely on the up, says acting head Tina Barnes, who was brought in after things went wrong and will be in charge until September 2002. Mrs Barnes, who has had to live with the words 'failing' and 'troubled' hung round the school's neck since she arrived, says now is the time to drop them.

Hatters Lane has drawn up an improvement action plan with help from the LEA and is now delivering it, she said.

Since June the school had been inspected five times, twice by HMIs and three times by the LEA and had had five increasingly good reports, she said.

The latest by the LEA on February 8 said the quality of learning in all lessons was satisfactory or better and the majority of the teaching was good.

The pupils' attitude was also good.

Mrs Barnes said: "There has been a huge programme since May of classroom observation and feedback and in-service training going on all the time."