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?

[Sixisthemagicnumber]

I wrote to my MP months ago, still waiting for a Response. I have wrote to him about a few things and haven't had a response to any of them. I didn't vote for my MP or the tory party.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

That's dreadful six! My MP responds. Her responses are crap as she doesn't understand how her party's policies work and she was too busy being a front line campaigner for Brexit. But she does respond.

[PlayOnWurtz]

That's crap six my local MP is a tory but extremely engaged with the community and local issues and responds to all letters. I think we've been really fortunate as he puts local issues first and aligns them to his party politics.

[WhirlwindHugs]

I'm going to try writing to my MP too. Unfortunately got no response to my last letter (about DV) but worth a try.

[noblegiraffe]

The DfE is apparently confident that schools can make efficiency savings without increasing class sizes, decreasing standards or reducing the curriculum offer.

Unfortunately heads disagree and say that the DfE doesn't understand the pressures facing schools, but only because they were too polite to say that he was talking bollocks.

www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-news/top-dfe-civil-servant-says-schools-can-make-savings-without-harming

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

Hoping the department of education will also make equivalent cuts in their own department if cuts are so good.

[Believeitornot]

The DFE have come up with these cuts without any tangible plan behind them.

It's bull.

Surely there's a bottom line, a level of minimum funding at which you can get a decently run school. Any lower and it becomes unmanageable.

I'd like to know what the DFE are thinking. Seriously ridiculous.

[Sixisthemagicnumber]

There is a bottom line and lots of schools have already been running beneath it but even those schools are facing further cuts.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

The more I think about this the angrier I get! There is nothing left to cut and we're having to do more. The cuts to mental health provision are having a huge impact. Our head has managed somehow to find some funds for a counsellor to come in for a few hours. I suspect it may be at a preferential rate. It's not enough. The pastoral work load is mushrooming out of control and we're a small school.
But what can we do?

[Believeitornot]

What can we do?

We have to make our voices heard.

Politicians do not like bad press. We can write to our MPs: www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/

you can write to the chair of PAC (who looks at how government spends its money): www.meghillier.com/contact/

You can write to local councillors

The sad thing is that the opposition is so dire but I would still email the labour shadow education secretary and try and get her to say something. Angela Rayner has been woefully silent: www.labour.org.uk/people/detail/angela-rayner

Also the Tory education secretary:
www.parliament.uk/biographies/commons/justine-greening/1555

Remember when Gordon brown came on to MN years ago and other politicians. They court publicity - we have to keep shouting at them to make them listen.

I am going to write to them all with specific examples of how a) the Tory education policies are failing (e.g. Cuts to teaching assistants, crumbling schools, no budgets etc etc) and b) that I will not be voting Tory in 2020. They're ruining my children's education.

[noblegiraffe]

Angela Rayner hasn't been silent on this! I think Labour are as much use as a chocolate fireguard, but actually I thought Angela Rayner has been ok.

E.g. www.tes.com/news/school-news/breaking-views/angela-rayner-outlook-schools-bleak-teachers-are-battling-and-we

[Believeitornot]

I've not seen her in the national press!

I didn't even know she was the shadow secretary.

[Believeitornot]

In fact she should be constantly banging a drum about this. I've done a quick news search and very very little.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

I think part of the problem is that the press are focused on their anti-Corbyn narrative. However, the Labour Party should be being louder about this. I may try the MP for where I work (different constituency I live on the border) he seems more locally proactive than my actual MP.

[Believeitornot]

The press are yes.

Which is why labour need to try alternative means of communicating with the voting public. Especially the younger section of the population who are not likely to be wedded to a particular newspaper. I'm not young, being mid 30s, but I read more than one paper and use the BBC for my news. Plus a bit of Twitter.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

Yup, I'd be placing my Labour based anger at the feet of their media office. Plenty of 'Even Better Ifs' for them.

[BadKnee]

The dog eat dog attitude is the attitude of the times though. The entitlement, the "rights", the "report her" stuff. All of it has a direct impact on how we fund and how we use those funds.

As for the funding - yes - my DS's school is losing money and is already pushed. How the teachers work in such conditions is beyond me. No books, no support, big classes, constantly changing demands.

A change of government might help. But we have thought that before and it didn't. Blair who was the Great Hope of many made things so much worse with the PPP funding for example.

All a call for a change in government does is say - "It's their fault - and all of you who voted for them". Work with the government we have now. As pp have said, lobby them, fight them.

And don't attack people who have different views. If someone thinks that a huge number of immigrant kids who don't speak English and whose parents don't speak English is a problem - respect that view - don't dismiss them and all they say because it is part of the problem along with the constant changing of education policy, parents who insist on seeing the head every five minutes or who don't discipline their kids.

[BadKnee]

Sorry - sticky keyboard - slow typing - pp's have said some of this.

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

You can say immigration is part of the problem. But it is also part of the solution. Many teachers come from 'abroad'. Over the years in the school I'm in: Iran, South Africa, Australia and Poland are just some of the examples (oh and like many schools some of our French teachers are, you know, French).
I'm sorry I will continue to call out opinions I feel are xenophobic. However, I will also continue to fight for the appropriate support for children who are EAL in schools.

[BadKnee]

If you continue to all out opinions that are xenophobic rather than look at all the causes of the problems then the fight cannot be won because the divide and rule problem destroys any serious challenge.

My son had English taught by a Czech citizen. He had no idea about Shakespeare, had not read the key English texts, (other than the set books) and missed cultural references.

Of course foreign language teachers can be - you know - French. That is not the problem.

In our secondary half the bottom stream was non-native speaking. It took time, money and energy to work with them. Our local primary spent one year's book budget on foreign language books for the new immigrants. Fine, I approve, but you cannot say that it has no impact or that someone who mentions it is simply to be dismissed.

[BadKnee]

And by the way - I taught English for free to refugees and immigrants in and out of schools. Most were not interested but some really valued it as helping them engage with their child's education

[DoctorDonnaNoble]

You're identifying the problem incorrectly though. The problem is not the existence of these students, it's that their needs are not funded.
By the way, I have met many, many British English teachers which struggle with Shakespeare etc. The SCITT students from local schools used to come to observe A Level with us ( they go to sixth form college now). They always asked me how I knew so much when I taught Milton. Here's how. I researched it. A teacher of any cultural background can do that. One of my departmental colleagues isn't British for example.

[GraceGrape]

There is a recruitment crisis in teaching. It may be that a Czech teacher of English is the only one available. Or the only one the school can afford! Funding cuts are only going to make the issue of finding teachers worse, especially if schools can't afford to employ the teachers they think would do the job best.

[PinkPancakes]

Spot on Grace.
Our school is starting campaigning locally on this issue after half term because they are losing several teachers worth of funding and the PTA has invited local MP to come and listen. We need to make as much noise as possible because the govt will try to present this as 'distributing a small pot more fairly'. Bull.
Funny how they had all that central govt money available when they wanted to push through forcible conversion into academy schools... It's all about their political priorities so we have to protest politically in return.

[StickyMouse]

I hadn't heard of it either.