Ms Moira Leydon:

That model is working very successfully in situwith resource teachers, as they were called in the past. The teacher has a permanent job, certainty, security of tenure and all those decent, old-fashioned things, but he or she is shared between schools. This poses a particular difficulty at second level. It is to do with what we would say are management prerogatives. We have consistently made the point that not every school can have the full complement of teachers, but surely in small areas, teachers can be shared with a bit of creative thinking and flexibility at school management level. To go back to the question, that is why there is the differential, shall we say, provision between schools. It is to do with space, infrastructure and culture. Girls' schools would typically have focused on the humanities and home economics, etc. It is also the investment environment around teacher allocation.