A PRIMARY school was forced to delay its first day of term because criminal record checks on new staff members had not been completed.

Children at Bullion Lane Primary School, in Chester-le-Street, County Durham, stayed at home yesterday for what should have been the first day of a new academic year because four teachers had not received clearance from the Criminal Records Bureau (CRB).

The CRB has to check the histories of all teaching and support staff and is dealing with a backlog of several thousand applications for checks considered urgent. It could be Christmas before the national backlog is cleared.

By Wednesday, Darlington Borough Council was still awaiting checks on 97 staff, including teachers, nursery nurses and kitchen assistants, and many schools had to pay supply teachers to cover for staff not yet cleared.

But Alan Verheyden, headteacher of Bullion Lane, said teachers and pupils were all due in school today.

By 3.30pm yesterday, three teachers had received clearance and the school had a supply teacher on stand-by in case the last teacher was not given the go-ahead in time.