FED up students at North Bromsgrove High School have spoken out after months of staffing changes, which have seen the resignation of seven maths teachers.

Pupils have taken to social media this week to complain about the number of lessons led by substitute teachers in the lead up to their GCSE and A-Level exams.

Teachers from the school's maths department announced their resignations to tutor groups last week, prompting concerns from children planning to study the subject at GCSE or A-Level in September.

Head teacher Angelina Robin-Jones in particular has come under fire from students who claim there has been a rise in teachers leaving the school since she started in the post last January.

Year 11 student James Gardner, 16, said: "My form tutor is a maths teacher and he told us a couple of days ago that he's leaving and the others announced it on the same day.

"I'm leaving in four weeks so it doesn't really affect me but the year nines and 10s will suffer because that's the entire maths department that are leaving.

"Since Mrs Robin-Jones started, we had 11 teachers leave last year - five of them were my teachers - and another five leave at Easter.

"I take sociology at GCSE and the whole course is taught by cover teachers now.

"It has really affected my education. That's three lessons a week for three months without a proper sociology teacher.

"We've had cover teachers and some of them know what they're doing but other times they don't have a clue about the subject, so we just do work from our textbooks all lesson and it's much harder to learn that way."

James' dad Brett, 54, who lives in Catshill, claims to have reported the family's concerns in writing to the school five weeks ago, but had no reply.

He said: "It's an important year for these kids and they need continuity. It's an absolute shambles."

Other students have taken their complaints to Ofsted.

But head teacher Mrs Robin-Jones says the resignations are 'not unusual' but 'unfortunate' that they are from the same department at the same time.

She said: "Schools are very restricted in the times that staff can move so it's not unusual to have staff changes at the same time.

"Unfortunately when teachers have been at a school for a long time they sometimes decide it's time for them to move on. Or in this case, when the head of department leaves, others will follow.

"But it isn't a case of teachers leaving from across the school - we have had no losses in the art, D&T or languages departments.

"I have filled three of the seven maths teacher slots this morning and the others will be filled in time for the new term in September.

"As always the school is fully engaged in ensuring our students get the best quality of education and are focused on ensuring stability for students going into exams."

Mrs Robin-Jones admitted that a few substitute staff brought in from agencies to cover absences were found to be below school standards, but that these incidents were reported to the relevant agency.

She said that all existing staff vacancies, including within the Sociology department, are covered by specialist senior staff members.

An Ofsted spokesman said: "Ofsted does not comment on individual complaints about a school. However, we take all complaints seriously.

“Where we have concerns, Ofsted has the right to inspect any school at any time.”