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.

The cuts were already crippling. I feel so sorry for all affected. Kids spend so much of their childhoods at school and it's so important. Gutted.

I was watching a documentary on Obama earlier. When discussing certain decisions he’d made and why, he said when a decision gets to me it’s not a clear cut answer else it wouldn’t have got to me. He said he takes the long view, that decisions always have trade offs and that he always sought to do what was morally right. That resonated.

Whilst BoJo can describe a woman, I don’t see any evidence of pro-women Tory policies and who’s to say he wasn’t just being opportunist. For me, ability to describe on its own is not nearly enough for my vote and is such a low benchmark given the damage and risk to so many other areas. You might feel heard as a women; let’s hope you feel that was an adequate trade off relative the situation we find ourselves in within schools, NHS, infrastructure etc. Ultimately we all vote with our conscience.

Regardless of all that this is thread about funding to schools. Either you disagree with the current state of affairs and will vote an alternative in or for your own reasons are happy with Tory - in which case you have no place on this thread beyond understanding (if you don’t already) the consequence of that decision.

Since Covid my kids school are permanently sending out emails begging for stuff - as the budgets are so tight everything from

Lego
Coloured paper
Craft materials
Any spare pull ups for nursery kids
Books
Maps
Tablets they can recondition
Stationery
Specific toys like farmyards/ dolls houses/ foe the nursery
Spare clothes for nursery
Handgel and soap

You name it they've asked for it

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.

They're damaging to those in education. They're damaging to those who need healthcare. They're damaging to the disabled. They're damaging to the less well-off. They're damaging to legitimate asylum seekers. They're damaging to international trade. They're damaging to international relations. They're liars. They're corrupt. They're damaging to basically anyone who isn't their mate or who can't do them a favour.

If you feel like you can overlook that to be a single issue voter, then fill your boots. But you'd better hope to god you don't end up needing state help for anything.

I think that’s where we differ. You see it as a single issue, I don’t. I see it as an issue that permeates through absolutely everything.

@Noodlicious yet they keep getting in. Surely it’s worth at least considering why that might be the case.

Ok, explain the impact. Give examples that haven't happened under the Conservatives, because the Conservatives know what a woman is.

You mean they got in with dwindling 40% ‘majority’? Luckily there weee still teachers in my day so I can do the maths. Got nothing to do with policy beyond Brexit.

I'd have thought that given that manysummers is determined to vote Tory because of this issue, and despite the awful impact to public services, that she'd be able to return with a list of reasons why this is important.

They have announced a pay rise for support staff of up to 10.5% www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/school-support-staff-offered-pay-rise-105

This is, again, unfunded, and announced well after school budgets have been set for September, which will lead to deficit budgets running into the thousands, and the need to cut staff.

This will disproportionately affect special schools and alternative provision who spend more money on staffing than other schools, and it may leave them unviable.

www.tes.com/magazine/news/general/staff-pay-special-schools-fast-track-unviability

This is quickly becoming a disaster.

Its just another way of shouldering the shit on to others.

It will be "we gave you a pay rise the schools refused to give you it, blame the school"

Unfortunately the government forgets that teachers are wise to their bullshit.

Remember as well that being over budget is still a red flag to turn schools in to academies, which is in line with the white paper that they published.

I thought all schools had to become academies.

The target is by 2030. There are schools resisting.

You mean the libdems, those who allowed an increase in Uni tuition fees to a whopping £9k per year. Yes, they're really into encouraging education aren't they? Then they wonder why they lost so many seats in the subsequent election and are barely making a dent against the two main parties, both of whom are unpopular!

What other parties have any hope at all of having any influence?

walkingthewalk

The school that I work in and the schools in the surrounding area, are not making any moves to become an academy which means becoming part of a MAT.

And being part of an academy has not been proved to be beneficial to anyone's education but it has lined quite a few people's pockets.

You mean the libdems, those who allowed an increase in Uni tuition fees to a whopping £9k per year. Yes, they're really into encouraging education aren't they?

Lib Dems generally have IMO the best education policies out of all the parties. Not sure if it is still in their manifesto but they wanted to take education out of the hands of politicians and give it to experts instead so we wouldn’t have this shit cycle of education secretaries who know fuck-all and of a constant churn of short-fix or populist policies caused by people wanting to leave their mark or win votes with crap like ‘bringing back grammar schools’.

Raising tuition fees was a Tory policy.

I think every profession would prefer "experts" to run it rather than revolving door politicians. Trouble is, even "experts" disagree and have different political points of view. Then of course, funding IS always going to be political.

Re the tuition fees, yes, I know it was a Tory policy, but the Libdems could have vetoed it in the coalition agreement and if the Tories wouldn't agree to it being removed from the legislature proposals, then could have voted against it, or could have simply not joined the coalition in the first place. Considering tuition fees was a big plank of the Libdem manifesto and gained them a lot of votes in the GE, it was a pretty fundamental mistake/error of judgment to support it!

Indeed it did lose them lots of support, however we were discussing reasons not to vote Tory, so if tuition fees was what was putting you off the Lib Dems, it certainly shouldn’t tip your vote blue.

There are good reasons not to vote for any of the parties. However, one (or two!) of them will end up running the country next election regardless. It might need to be a case of voting against rather than for.

I’m on holiday!

I can’t agree that teaching under a Labour government was a land of milk and honey, where endless money provided whatever teachers needed to teach effectively, kids behaved well because there was funding for support staff and SEN, and there was no corruption.

I think the aim to get 50% to university was disastrous and damaging. It was ultimately that which brought in tuition fees, which in turn opened the door for those to go up and up and up. My year (1999) was the first year to pay tuition fees, two years into a Labour government.

There were huge pressures on teachers. It was still an incredibly stressful job. Have you ever had to get four separate pieces of coursework from a y11 class, mark them, realise they aren’t good enough, do them again, over and over again? Have you ever had the delight of having a class cram for a GCSE at the end of y10, not get Cs, re enter again in November, still not get Cs, finally pray they might in august of y11? Was that honestly best for anybody? It was awful. But that was the system in thousands of schools under Labour.

I don’t know if I would vote Tory. I will have to look into it a bit more next time there is a GE. I am reasonably confident I wouldn’t vote for Labour, mostly because of their policies about TWAW (not wanting to divert the thread - just saying!) but also because I really am filled with horror at the idea of going back to those days and having my own children sit that farce of GCSES.

I don’t have any magic solutions here, as perhaps if I did I would be in politics. I can only voice what I saw and what I experienced.

With respect many, you didn't teach in the 90s.

I agree much of New Labour wasn't good for education. But it was better than now.

When I began teaching there really wasn't this drill drill drill obsession.

So many teachers who began teaching post league tables, OFSTED etc seem to think this is the only way to educate.

I began teaching under 100% coursework. Anathema to many, I loved it. I knew the kids better, had better relationships, schools were smaller, class sizes were smaller and schools felt more like communities - I am still recognised by kids and parents from 25 years ago . Behaviour could be bad , definitely. That was partly my inexperience. I think people respected teachers more, on the whole. General behaviour has got worse as it is more widespread.

I am unable to forgive the LibDems for tuition fees but, come an election, if I felt I could unseat Dorries in my constituency, I would vote LibDem without a second thought.

I believe you @Piggywaspushed , but then that was under a Tory government.

My experiences of school in the 90s (and 80s) was pretty poor - but that was from the other side of the fence as it were.

I don’t think that OFSTED and league tables are the only way at all - in fact, they are a pretty stupid way (our school has recently been graded Good and believe me, it isn’t!)

So has there ever been a time when education has been brilliant? I’m not sure there is!

97 was Labour. The delight of teachers was palpable, honestly. And it did feel more positive. Might not have lasted but it felt better. Personally, though, I hated Blunkett.

And I started five years later - so what went wrong in that time?

I can’t agree that teaching under a Labour government was a land of milk and honey, where endless money provided whatever teachers needed to teach effectively, kids behaved well because there was funding for support staff and SEN, and there was no corruption.

No one has said that, so god knows who you're arguing with.

However, looking at the current state of education it's not about looking for the land of milk and honey, or endless money, it's looking for a government that doesn't actively treat state education and the public sector workforce with utter contempt. It is about hoping for adequate money in order to be able to balance a school budget without having to make more redundancies and cut more subjects. It's about hoping that quicker progress will be made in bringing the school estate up to a safe standard.

Looking at twitter people are talking about Kemi Badenoch as next Ed Sec. Kemi Badenoch who said as part of her leadership bid that she would cut 'superfluous' support staff from schools and strip subjects back.

Oh but Blair and Brown weren't absolutely brilliant for education therefore there really is an utter dilemma about whether to vote Tory or not.

There is no one to vote for, literally no one.

I would disagree that the options are equally bad though. I mean, Sunak/Truss???