Govt announces huge cut to schools funding, redundancies

[noblegiraffe]

Yesterday the government announced that there would be huge cuts to schools funding and this would mean larger class sizes, less support for SEND pupils and a smaller subject offering.

You might have missed this as it was framed as a generous pay rise for teachers.

This pay rise will be massively below inflation and therefore represent a large pay cut for experienced teachers, where ‘experienced’ means that they have been teaching for 5 years. The pay rise for new teachers is well below (due to inflation) what was promised in the 2019 Conservative manifesto as necessary to tackle the teacher recruitment crisis. schoolsweek.co.uk/dfe-announces-5-pay-rise-for-most-teachers-in-2022-23/

However, poor as the pay offering is, the critical issue is that the government isn’t going to fund it. Schools would need to fund these pay rises from their existing budgets, which will mean that either teachers don’t get the pay rise (this happens) or there will be cuts and redundancies in schools, or both.

School funding itself will only rise by 1.9% which, as everyone is acutely aware, will not be enough to deal with the across-the-board price rises. schoolsweek.co.uk/school-per-pupil-funding-to-rise-by-only-1-9-per-cent-next-year/

Schools have already made redundancies, cuts to SEN provision and subject provision over the last 12 years of dire education funding. We are now cutting deep into the bone of educational provision.

So when the government talk about accepting in full the pay recommendation from the pay review body whose hands the Treasury tied, or about selfish unions and greedy teachers, in the end it’s going to be the kids who are losing out, when their class sizes increase, their SEN provision is reduced, they can’t take the subjects that they want, and their school can’t provide them with a qualified teacher.

This Government really don't give a shit about the people they are supposed to represent.

Blair made a terrible decision over Iraq but education, education, education was a priority under their watch.

Our poor kids these days experiencing absolute no frills education with the wealth in this country going elsewhere (trident / HS2 budget etc)

Unfortunately Tories will Tory…they’ve never been supportive of teachers…

I’ve said this on other threads but given the amount of ‘focus’ on MN about schools and teachers, and the national shortage of school governors, some people would do well to volunteer and become one.

I don’t profess to know everything as I’m not teaching in the classroom all day - and that’s not my role anyway - but jeez it’s been an eye opener. People have literally no idea what’s going on and when I see threads complaining the teacher has said no squash and poor Johnny might be dehydrated - grrrrr.

Rome is burning people - forget the frigging squash!

Rome is burning people - forget the frigging squash!
Ain't that the truth!

oh absolutely @Noodlicious but there's just as many other threads about winging teachers/too many holidays. There just isnt the public favour and as you say most people really dont have a clue. Then see a thread like one of Nobles and assume its "teacher winging". Rome is burning :(

I do try, in my threads, to post figures, data, graphs in the OP so that people can see that it's not merely whinging teachers.

I'm not sure that people really get it though, till it's their own kid who doesn't have a qualified teacher, or who has a string of supply teachers in an exam year, or whose preferred GCSE or A-level suddenly disappears from the list of options.

Oh Noble I love your threads. Its just so disheartening to then read a "my school is wanting children to stay home in the heat" type thread and realise what so many parents think of teachers 😔.

Volunteer here!
www.inspiringgovernance.org

I’ll make myself unpopular and say it - I won’t be voting Labour. (I don’t think Blair did much good for education anyway) - it’s the woman thing.

Other parties than Labour are available. I'd be surprised with anyone choosing to vote Conservative thinking that they're the party of women, though.

Teachers are majority women and we get treated like shit, for example.

this makes more sense now as I did wonder how it would be funded.

so many public services are fucked!

Cant see it changing though depressingly

I don’t think any party who doesn’t know what a woman is can be the party for women, can they?

Other parties than Labour might be available but everyone knows that won’t solve the problem.

I don't think that the Tories are the party for women even if they do 'know what a woman is'. Being able to identify us isn't exactly lifting us up under their watch, is it?

Polling shows that particular issue is very low down on the voter priority list though.

No, I'm not expecting going on strike to change anything either, tbh. Just signal discontent.

Giraffe - I don’t think the Tories champion womens rights, but if you deny what a woman is, you can’t even begin to get to grips with what those rights might be.

TWAW isn’t just some roll-your-eyes-and-ignore policy. It permeates right through everything and is immensely damaging.

Massive cuts to public services aren’t just some roll your eyes and ignore policy either. Unless you are super-rich, of course 🤷‍♀️

Indeed. But out of the two, if I had to choose which was more damaging, the erosion of womens rights comes top.

Maybe you are not on the right thread then?

Since when could Giraffe not handle one discerning voice, piggy?

Why is what I am saying wrong? We are saying the Tories are damaging to education? Fair enough. But if there was an election tomorrow, I’d vote for them, because I can’t vote for a party who will throw women under the bus.

You won’t agree; no problem, but it’s hardly a vastly unreasonable point that shouldn’t be uttered.

Women's rights..?🤔
The majority of school and hospital staff are women, its generally the mothers of SEN children who bear the brunt of the lack of support, women have disproportionately suffered under the tory rule in all aspects of society.
Get a new soundbite already.

I’m a school governor, I too would recommend it (there is a governor recruitment problem too). Definitely eye opening. As soon as I saw the Government announcement about pay rises I guessed it wouldn’t be funded. So some teachers will get pay rises whilst others will lose their jobs, and it’s not like schools are over staffed

This thread is a thread about school cutsmany, not a discussion about voting Labour. Or not.

It’s a very tenuous argument to claim that womens rights are being purposefully eroded through lack of funding to public services as most of these workers happen to be women.

It isn’t about getting a new ‘sound bite.’ If you want a credible opposition, then it’s something that has to be addressed one way or another. Otherwise, you’re back in 80s Britain when the Tories can do as they wish as they know they will keep getting back in.

Most of giraffes threads are political though Piggy, and we both know this.

I am not trying to give you or giraffe a hard time here. But as much as we can all say yes, terrible, shouldn’t happen, awful, it will keep happening unless people are persuaded to vote for a different political party and that didn’t happen last time. Will it in the next GE? I don’t know. I do know I can’t vote for Labour, as they are, and I should be a natural Labour supporter. As it is, I’m not. I don’t think I’m wrong to say this on a thread that’s about politics.

It might be worth mentioning that the chairs of the big academy chains are on a fuck of a lot of money, mind.