To wonder why mn aren't bothered by the school budget cuts.

[minifingerz]

Posted on chat asking if parents are concerned about the coming cuts to school budgets, and how much their child's school is losing (or whether it will be one of the few to gain).

My dc's school is losing about 1K per child. Class sizes increasing significantly, school dinners will increase in cost, support staff being sacked right, left and centre. Some schools will have to get rid of almost all their TA's.

The cuts are really radical and coming at a time of big change in regard to GCSE's. I'm really concerned about it and I wonder why other people are not.

BTW I agree that schools outside of big cities have been historically underfunded. Just don't agree with robbing Peter to pay Paul. Surely the answer is to increase the overall budget for schools so that all schools have what they need to provide a good education for children?

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

Green - many of those underfunded schools are also having their budgets cut. The London formula worked. It should be rolled out to all schools. The money could come from closing inheritance tax loopholes for example. The money IS there. The government don't want to spend it on public services as they object to them at an ideological level.

[KathArtic]

I'm so pleased my DCs are coming to the end of education.

I can only think that Academy's will need to work with local businesses and secure private funding. Or allow local businesses to used their premises out of school hours - or worse, within school hours. Our secondary school has a business centre.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

I live in a very poor area and the schools here are a lot more affected than those in richer areas. My ds' school isn't the worse affected by far but still pretty bad and the worse affected are in the poorest areas here.

[BewtySkoolDropowt]

Nothing comes up in my area. Think it's England and Wales.

[GreenGinger2]

I think some money does need to be taken away from schools that have enjoyed extra funding for years. It hasn't been a level playing field at all and is utterly unfair.

Raising every school to such levels simply isn't going to be possible.

[noblegiraffe]

I don't know why the cuts aren't getting more traffic on here either, I've come to the conclusion that people will only complain when they realise the direct and detrimental effect that it is having on their kids' education.

Cuts are already having an effect on their kids, but schools try to shield parents from them, because schools need bums on seats to get money in the first place. School open evenings boast of how great the school is, not that they will be losing X TAs, Y teachers and Z subject options in the very near future.

Parents often don't know that their kid is being taught maths by an unqualified teacher, or that science is covered by a string of supply teachers. They don't know that the teacher is having to buy their own pritt sticks or that the school can't afford textbooks.

Some heads are starting to speak up, but I'm sure many parents think 'thank god this doesn't affect my DC's school' when it absolutely does. Even schools that are supposedly 'gaining' under this new formula are actually losing money in real terms.

[minifingerz]

"I'm in an area that has been seriously underfunded- for years. Schools have coped."

Yes, London has historically been better funded than the rest of the UK.

People always give this as the reason why London schools achieve more highly (overall) than other places.

Are you saying that there is no link between funding and outcomes?

That having to increase class sizes and shed teachers will make no difference to the quality of education schools in London will be able to offer?

And yes they will 'cope' as they have no choice. But huge classes and almost no support staff are going to make life hellish in schools which have very high turnover of staff and pupils as many London schools do. :-(

[Phantommagic]

I've not found any schools gaining amongst the ones I've looked at here. City and non city. Non south. All massive cuts and we've been struggling budget wise for years already. I'm thinking of stopping buying paper and resources for my teaching though as we are masking the problem.

[minifingerz]

"Green - many of those underfunded schools are also having their budgets cut. The London formula worked. It should be rolled out to all schools. The money could come from closing inheritance tax loopholes for example. The money IS there. The government don't want to spend it on public services as they object to them at an ideological level"

^^ this. In spades.

[GreenGinger2]

Plenty of schools outside of London have high staff and pupil turnovers too.

Funny when London schools are going to be affected toys start getting thrown out of prams.

Didnt see much outrage the past few years when other areas complained of unfairness. Areas without high levels of immigrants and being near the capital to aid results.

[GreenGinger2]

Or SE affluence.

[MalletsMallets]

There was a few threads on it a few months ago. People are outraged.
Your just late to the party op

[noblegiraffe]

"Having been through one redundancy process, for our non-classroom based staff, I really don’t want to go through it again but the National Funding Formula, if it stays in the current form, will make this a certainty. Before you start shouting that we have obviously been overfunded before and it is only fair that we have equality around this issue I obviously agree with funding being ‘fair’ but what about the outlandish thought that before we can have ‘fair funding’ we must have sufficient funding.

The only way funding can be fair is if there is enough in the pot to start with. Whilst I know the government got elected on an austerity driven mandate I wonder how they would have done if people knew it also meant that schools will not be able to afford text books or to replace important staff that support their child?"

headteachersroundtable.wordpress.com/2017/01/20/every-school-has-different-challenges-united-by-funding-pressures-vic-goddard-vicgoddard/

[minifingerz]

Green, I assure you I feel outraged at the historic under funding of state schools around the UK too.

But the spitefulness and mean spiritedness of posters like you takes my breath away.

The true spirit of Brexit, the Daily Mail and our current Tory government - setting people against each other to scrabble over public sector spending.

[noblegiraffe]

Getting the conclusion from this thread that people think the fairer funding formula is the cause of these issues.

It's hiding massive real term budget cuts. School costs are rising, pupil numbers are increasing. Sixth form funding has been cut to the bone. Every school is affected.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

Green -
I don't teach in London. Not sure why you keep going on about it. The funding formula worked in London. It should be expanded out.
I do teach in the South East, well East Anglia. Our area has (I'll repeat this) the MOST DEPRIVED AREA IN THE COUNTRY. By some measures, some years it's been the most deprived in Europe! Schools in this area are also losing money.
We are NOT are poor country. Failure to invest in the future is a false economy. Stop buying into their us and them narrative. All schools need to fight this together!

[GreenGinger2]

I have read threads where people complained re the funding unfairness for years. The spiteful ness and mean spiritedness from posters like you took my breath away too. They simply couldn't give a stuff.

Schools coped. They had to. Your's will too.

[minifingerz]

Would also add that London and the SE/SW have massive problems with retention of staff relating to the cost of housing, which means our teachers have a much worse quality of life than teachers elsewhere in the UK. London Weighting and salary enhancements don't touch the sides of the problem.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

London cuts are similar per pupil to those in my area so the truth is if their budgets are larger now they will be larger after.

[GreenGinger2]

It is ridiculous to expect the levels of funding London has enjoyed for years to be equalled everywhere at the moment.

[minifingerz]

"The spiteful ness and mean spiritedness from posters like you took my breath away too. They simply couldn't give a stuff."

Eh?



Have you got some other massive axe to grind and I'm missing something here?

[Phantommagic]

Schools being cut now aren't just the ones who were well funded before. Most seem to be facing cuts after having been poorly funded for years. It is not a question of managing. They will not be able to manage. Most of a school budget goes on staff.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

No. It isn't. Austerity isn't necessary. It is failing on its own terms. Money for war is available, why isn't money to educate our children.

[noblegiraffe]

Green You don't know what you are talking about, this isn't a London issue. Schools are not coping.

Cheshire (very much not London) is considering a 4 day week. Is that what you mean by coping?

"Expanding upon the four-day week idea, Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School head teacher Denis Oliver said he was investigating the possibility of "having children working at home with their teachers online as virtual support, [thereby] saving on heating, lighting, cleaning and transport costs."
"We are looking at everything," he told the BBC.
"Class sizes will rise, services for children with high needs will drastically reduce, school libraries may have to close.
"It's draconian. It will destroy some schools.""


[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-38692692]

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

Was going to mention that Noble. And this is on top of Sussex already saying this might be necessary.