to be scared by school budget cuts?

[TeeGee123]

My son's school is a two form entry primary. They're losing £805 per pupil, equivalent to SIX teaching salaries.

Although the government says that its moving money around nationally, all my FB friends (Penzance, Abergavenny, Manchester) are seeing cuts at their schools. (they checked here: www.schoolcuts.org.uk/)

What's going on? Anyone on here getting MORE in their local schools?

Hmmmmm. Two links to the same (dubious) website on the first page in a thread. Something smells fishy.........

It does AndNone, but in our town and in the schools I've worked at not a single one is meeting that target.

I'll say it again, in bold, *the cuts you are talking about only cover England. Education is (mostly) devolved so you cannot use the same funding principles across the whole of the UK."

Bold fail.

*the cuts you are talking about only cover England. Education is (mostly) devolved so you cannot use the same funding principles across the whole of the UK.

I'm petrified quite frankly, I wish I had more money or could move abroad

I can see lots of schools cutting back on TAs, librarians, support staff to balance the books in the next few years.

No doubt the government will suggest volunteers can step in to fill the gaps

You might be interested to read this, from a secondary head who is dealing with this issue: johntomsett.com/2017/01/16/this-much-i-know-about-the-school-funding-crisis-and-the-national-funding-formula/

I'm a school governor. We will actually get a little more under the fair funding formula (about £30k), but we are losing other funding which cancels out that gain. After rising costs and incremental salary increases (over which we have no control) have been taken into account, we are looking at a net "loss" in real terms of £80k. Yes, you could argue that it isn't an actual loss if you just look at the numbers, but it's still £80k of spending that we somehow have to cut.

We currently have minimum staffing in place and we don't see how we can cut £80k from the school budget without a significant negative impact on the pupils. Other local schools are already consulting on potential redundancies. We have no surplus staff who we can cut, so we will be eating into our reserves next year and hoping like mad that something will be done about the school funding crisis in the meantime, before the money runs out.

I believe that secondary schools are in an even worse situation than primary schools.

It's a national outrage. We are failing the next generation, and they will hold us accountable.

The school I work at is loosing tens of thousands. Tightest budget next year on record, per pupil. We already have asbestos, broken equipment, less TAs, not enough textbooks, and poor chances of innovation or training as we are a rural school.

This is bullshit. We are the sixth richest country aren't we? Why are our disabled dying, poor starving, homeless numbers increasing and our children getting class sizes over 30, no SEN support and no fucking textbooks?

I can see lots of schools cutting back on TAs, librarians, support staff to balance the books in the next few years.

Yes, indeed, but that assumes that there are TAs and librarians to be cut. Our school used to have TAs who helped out generally, but now we can only afford to employ TAs to help with children who have a high level of SEN. We are even struggling to resource this, because the funding that we get for these children is utterly inadequate.

One of the teachers looks after the school library.

Yes, everyone should be very concerned. My DH and I are both teachers, with many teacher friends. Between us we have already the following going on in our schools.

Voluntary redundancies. Warning of possible forced redundancies. Further increases to class sizes. Staff asked to go over their teaching time allocation and do extra duties. Cuts to support staff/natural wastage by not replacing support staff. Staff asked to voluntarily reduce hours so we can jigsaw the staffing budget/timetable together more 'efficiently'. Huge reduction in course choices at A level and some reduction at GCSE. Mostly languages and practical/arts subjects being chopped. More teachers made to teach subjects outside their area of expertise to maximise timetabling efficiency. Selection of cheapest candidates (NQTs) rather than best (experienced UPS) to appoint. Temporary, challenging internal promotions with start and end of term dates to cover absences, then the staff who stepped in not paid over any holiday period before or after (despite being required to complete the necessary work for the role during those periods) and then sometimes 're-promoted' in the new term. Experienced teachers leaving in droves. NQTs promoted to roles beyond their abilities- basically set up to fail. Huge pressure to be seen to offer increasing amounts of compulsory 'intervention' to vast numbers of students rather than supporting those who need it most. Huge conveyer belt of student teachers, supply teachers (to cover all the staff off with stress) and NQTs used to plug gaps adding to decline in standards and behaviour. And of course, lack of resources/books/IT/restricted photocopying, buildings in bad state of repair.

I could keep going but suffice to say we are actively looking at our options to leave the profession and a plan to manage private schooling when our DD reaches secondary age. I'm an AHT in a supposedly outstanding leafy comp and I wouldn't want my DD here if we have any other option.

Is there a reliable link that says what each school is being cut by?

To those who joked about it being ok if you got into a grammar. Many of the points I make above are from a grammar that my friend works in.

Why are our disabled dying, poor starving, homeless numbers increasing and our children getting class sizes over 30, no SEN support and no fucking textbooks?

Someone's got to pay for Brexit/the Tories.

No rollonthesummer because they haven't been "cut" they just aren't keeping pace with increased costs.

The DfE site I linked to has spreadsheets with how the new funding proposals will affect schools assuming everything else stays the same when it's introduced (which it won't)

rollonthesummer this is the best estimate www.schoolcuts.org.uk/

Also, talk to your headteacher, they can give you more detail.

3 posts now. Are you affiliated with that site by any chance, OP?

Interesting link Clare.

The article states that...
What wasn’t included in the report but which is the ultimate consequence of not funding our schools properly is a deepening of the recruitment crisis. If working conditions and teachers’ pay worsen because of the cuts to school budgets, then we will struggle to entice our brightest and best into the classroom.

I actually wonder if that is what the government are trying to achieve. They seem to be doing everything they can to make the teaching crisis worse-cutting funding, destroying the unions etc

I wonder if the teaching qualification/professions/unions will be totally gone very soon and schools will be staffed by low paid school 'staff' who deliver lessons. They won't have the bargaining power of the unions to hold over the government which frankly the government don't want.

Or is that cynical!?

TittyGoLightly I'm not involved with NUT/NAHT/teaching/education. I have a son at a school struggling with the incoming buts. I also think more people should be aware of the cuts. The site shows what's actually happening, vs the spin from govt.

Does it? It shows what the unions think is happening, sure. But the fact it includes countries outside England show it's not up to much.

Already in both the infant and junior school my children go to ppa is covered by a TA Absences are covered by a TA...

So if 10-20% of their class time is Ta led thats just going to increase isn't it with unqualified staff taking increasing amounts of time.

Every know and then I fear for my kids and winder about homeschooling but ultimately I'm v pro school in general and want them to have the benefit of specialist teachers....

If you home educate you can access even more specialist teachers!

tittygolightly I'm using the information that's available to me. Do you have anything better? Should I assume that unions made up of teachers are fabricating this information? Maybe like the doctors and nurses unions are making up the NHS crisis?

www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-39292344

provides an overview

People saying that the schoolcuts website is unreliable must surely find it difficult to explain that the National Audit Office is saying similar.

"Ministers have no idea how schools in England will implement £3bn worth of cuts and have not communicated the scale and pace of savings required, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has found.

The National Audit Office said schools faced an 8% real-terms reduction in funding per pupil by 2019-20 and cost pressures could result in “significant risks” in making the necessary spending cuts.

A report released on Wednesday has found that although average funding per pupil will rise from £5,447 in 2015-16 to £5,519 in 2019-20 that amounts to a real-terms reduction once inflation is taken into account."

www.theguardian.com/education/2016/dec/14/ministers-have-failed-to-explain-where-schools-will-find-savings-watchdog-says

Even schools that gain under the funding formula (which may not go through as there appears to be a back-bench revolt) will lose in real terms, says the Education Policy Institute.

" All state schools in England are likely to suffer real-term cuts to funding per-pupil over the next 3 years with secondary schools having to lose 6 teachers from their staff on average as a result, research has found"

www.ft.com/content/861862ba-0a6a-11e7-ac5a-903b21361b43

So can people please stop saying this is all misrepresentations by the unions, it's only schools in London who were overfunded who will lose out and so on. That's bullshit.