School budget cuts- is this normal?

[SummerDuck]

So a letter has come out from DS’s school titled “Plans for the next academic year”. Basically due to teacher pay rises, inflation and government funding freeze, there will need to be changes in how the school operates.

The school are proposing 20 teacher redundancies with the drama and French departments closing. There will be a “reset” of catering provision with reduced staffing and a heat from frozen offer.

School trips are being “paused” while most office staff will go, with teachers picking up some of these tasks. Is this the norm bod for state schools?

Yes.

Yes

Not normal historically.
Normal for the present time, yes 😓

And this is why teachers are striking

Sadly, yes. This is exactly why teachers were/are striking. Funding in stage education is dire.

Yes it is.

At my secondary if someone leaves they simply aren't replaced.

Yep, you'll be lucky if they have in date text books etc. I wouldnt be surprised if parents are asked for a classroom 'donation' to contribute to school supplies this year.

Make sure your own DC take in their own supplies of all stationery including glue and scissors etc for their own use as they become as rare as hens teeth by the middle of term with schools rationing out how many of each type of stationery each teacher can have. They get used up, lids get lots, they get vandalised, damaged and stolen.

The heating bills for schools last year would have been extortionate too.

Yes, and it will become even more normal over the next few years if nothing is done to increase funding for school budgets and teachers' salaries, hence the strikes.

Completely.

I teach in an outstanding secondary. And not “historically outstanding but not been inspected for 17 years”, but given outstanding within the last 6 months.

we’re scrapping German next year. No money, no teachers. Teaching staff were offered voluntary redundancy and about 10 have taken it. They will not be replaced.
our department meetings which have, historically, been part of our timetable will now need to take place after school and our teaching load is increasing.

it’s not just that education funding has been cut to the bone. It’s that all the other services have been cut too and we are expected to pick up the slack. And pay for the services (like mental health, speech and language etc etc) that would have existed at another point in time.

Certainly schools having to reduce the subjects they offer is normal.

Not sure about teachers having to do the job of admin staff - what sort of thing?

Yes it is normal and DC primary already had redundancies. They also published the money owed from parents from trips, activities and residential and it’s over £10k. I’m not surprised it has to be paused. Where is the money coming from with the budget cuts.

yes normal.

How do people not know this? Noble has started so many threads about the state of schools.

Teachers are striking so much. How do people not know this is why?

Thins is unfortunately the education system falling apart.

Totally normal, which makes it even more shocking

FGS why are people surprised?! We have had a year of strikes and more, and coordinated strike action, next year. The government does not want to fund education for the masses.

most office staff will go, with teachers picking up some of these tasks. Is this the norm bod for state schools?
the teaching staff will leave too if this is the case. This is absolutely not contractural.

I’m a state school teacher who has left due to the state of the place. In contrast, we struggle to send our children private and they have full staffing, 5 extra staff for September, classes of 18 and my daughter has just been sent brand new copies of textbooks and novels to read over the holidays.

This is the education that politician’s children enjoy. Why should they give a fuck about educating the plebs. It’s a disgrace.

You are absolutely spot on.

How do people not know this? Noble has started so many threads about the state of schools.

Ongoing project. I think the penny is dropping for more parents though as they start to realise that it is actually affecting their kids and not just someone else's children.

@noblegiraffe

I think the penny is finally dropping.

Teaching staff will be completely in their rights to decline to organise aspects of school trips involving sorting the payment etc. It is specifically not in their contract now. My school can barely afford trips now anyway as we can't afford the pupil premium subsidy.

Unfortunately, it is normal and will get worse, unless the government, any government, funds education properly.

Perhaps people will begin to realise that the strikes are not just about salary, but about schools actually having the means to provide a broad and balanced curriculum.

Its the thin end of a very large wedge now and how long will it be before the teachers that are left will be required to clean the toilets and classrooms, as well as undertaking the admin tasks that they are not contracted to do.

Rooms in schools will be shut and there will be online teaching in the hall, with hundreds watched over by a member of staff.

It’s been spoken of for ages. Only now, that it directly affects them, are people beginning to listen. Too late.

Welcome to the wake up ship! If you bury your head in the sand for too long you get a shock like this. Glad you've had a quick wake up about the education system. Next year they will have to cut more or have unqualified teachers teaching. Are you happy for this or is now the time you actually support teachers and do something you should've done a while ago.

Genuinely....
How is this news to any state school parent?
All oart of the tory slash and burn tactics over the last 13 years and until the next GE.

100% agree with the pp who said maybe now we will get fewer posts about why teachers are wrong to be striking "over pay". Whilst they (and I am one) absolutely should be paid more, that is NOT the primary motivation for the stikes but the only one which can legally be "striked" for. I am also fortunate to work in private and so have parachuted my own children out of this situation - its so depressing on the private /state debate threads when posters continue to maintain state is absolute fine and private an unnecessary luxury. The education sector needs something akin to the measures just announced for the NHS. A long term plan for recruitment, retention and investment in both people and infrastructure, with an emphasis on leaving education policy to professional educators, not vote chasing politicians and an acceptance that this HAS to come from significant, real terms increase in investment, not redeploying already inadequate budgets or paying minimum wage to anyone with a pulse to be a cover supervisor.

I don't think that's normal. Losing potentially 20 teachers & most office staff is pretty extreme. Does the school have full rolls? I would expect them to do some fundraising first tbh.

Reading the rest of the thread I think the academies I work with most be lucky to have surplus budgets from previous years.