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?

All the parents and students in our school are being urged to complete the submission. I have already received a letter back from our MP, who is totally behind us. Sadly, all she can do is write to the government.

The students have to share PCs and courses are already being cut.

I have a friend whose children are in private education and she simply doesn't "get" or understand the issues. Most children in this country aren't so sheltered from real life.

Jumps off soapbox.

The wrong bits of educations! Part of the current problem is that lots of free schools opened, and school expansions took place, a few years ago to prepare for the anticipated increase in primary aged pupils. This rise is numbers hasn't been sustained. Consequently there are lots of schools who don't have enough children to fill their places and, as a result, their budgets have been slashed.

Every response that the DfE makes is total bullshit. School funding is at the highest levels ever (but pupil numbers and costs are even higher, schools are crumbling and it will take billions to get them up to an even satisfactory standard).
Teacher numbers are high and it's an attractive profession (pupil numbers are higher and teachers are quitting in droves, many schools have stopped bothering advertising for maths and physics teachers because it's futile).

Consequently there are lots of schools who don't have enough children to fill their places and, as a result, their budgets have been slashed.

This is crap.

No, it is not crap noblegiraffe! There are schools in my LA that can't fill their places because free schools and academies have opened in the area. Fact.

And how much "set up " money was wasted on these?

www.google.co.uk/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=free+schools+closing+due+to+lack+of+pupils&*

There are schools in my LA that can't fill their places because free schools and academies have opened in the area

Too many new schools given money in places where they weren't needed.

Pud, it's not crap that some schools will see a reduction in funding because of lower pupil numbers but this is separate to that. Schools that have no reduction in pupil numbers will also see funding slashed.

When people say stuff like 'oh, it's only schools in London that will be hit because they have too much money' or 'funding is cut where there is a reduction in pupil numbers', it misleads people into thinking that actually the situation is fine and reasonable. It's not. Every state school in England will be expected to do more with less money.

Every state school in England will be expected to do more with less money

Indeed.

spaniel about £10million in 2014/15, way more than that since then.

www.google.co.uk/amp/schoolsweek.co.uk/10m-write-off-on-free-school-and-academies-programme/amp/

Yanbu.

Dds large secondary school let 15 teachers go at Xmas. Because of funding cuts.

It's a big school, 220 kids per year. They now only have one RS teacher which seeing as it's a compulsory subject astonishes me. Dd has had her RS lessons halved from two a week to once.

They've also merged classes so it's now 60 kids per lesson being taught in the hall as there isn't a classroom big enough! This is gcse year and she's taking a full gcse in RS.

They now don't have enough teachers in a lot of subjects so teachers are having to teach stuff as long as they have a gcse in it. So pe teaching teaching geography, French teacher teaching maths.

My sil has left teaching because she was told she had to start teaching maths. She scraped a C in her gcse and hasn't done any

....hasn't done maths in twenty years. She said there was no way she could teach it so left.

Noblegiraffe - agreed. Was merely making the point that this issue is running alongside the proposed fairer funding and the rising costs this year. All these factors are contributing to financial strain.

DD's school has had to lose 40 teachers in the last 5 years due to budget constraints.

"They've also merged classes so it's now 60 kids per lesson being taught in the hall as there isn't a classroom big enough! This is gcse year and she's taking a full gcse in RS."

Wow! That's bad Possum. There are 270 students in each year at DD' school, but at least there aren't 60 in a lesson.

A lot of the old, crumbling schools in our LA were rebuilt under the BSF programme under the Labour government, so they have the added headache of a large mortgage on top of their other running costs.

Guess I should be thankful it's only in RS!

Our crumbling school was next in line to be rebuilt under BSF but the Tories scrapped it and so the buildings are still falling apart. Teachers and kids having to work in conditions that are not conducive to learning. Cold in winter, boiling in summer, leaky in the rain, damp, horrible smells, holes in the walls and so on.

It isn't just the funding formula that is creating cuts. Small schools are having their free school meal support cut so they now have to fund it from their own budget (so in effect a budget cut) plus the introduction of the apprentice levy. All council maintained schools will have to pay 0.5% of their budget in a levy regardless of if they have an apprentice or not. So again a further cut to the budget. One of my local schools has told parents they will be asking them for monetary support. Teachers are already buying stock for the classroom. It means huge class sizes I'm afraid.

Just a note that the current (2nd) DfE consultation on school funding has dropped 'Fairer' from the first round consultation document.

Our LA briefing - currently sitting 3rd from bottom in the per pupil funding scale - indicates that our LA would move to 5th from bottom if the current proposals were confirmed. Half the county Primary/Junior/Infant schools will lose funding - all are one form entry (30 pupils max) or smaller. We are a 'county town and rural' mix LA. The Govt aim seems to be distributing a too small already pot broadly in a way that maintains the current unfair distribution. The new funding formula produces almost exactly the same distribution curve, albeit with a bit of a per pupil reduction to the top end LAs, and the proposal then fixes the new profile for the foreseeable future - so continuing the unfairness it was supposed to address. The most significant negative in the proposed formula is the reduction in the lump sum. It is the lump sum that recognises that all schools have a core spending requirement, not least to meet the statutory duties placed on them by the DfE and other Govt departments - pupil teacher ratios, classroom pupil capacity, compliance (H&S, HMRC, employment), pay, staffing HT/DHT/qualified SENCO - off the top of my head.

The suggestions from the DfE on how schools might manage challenging budgets is insulting. We already do the cross school sharing of resources and staff, aren't buying goods and services without significant scrutiny and determining if value for money. There are no MATs knocking any door in our area and there isn't a school below Good in our area, LA overall is 90%+ Good/Outstanding. We do not represent opportunities for MAT cost cutting unless all our pupils are deposited in the next nearest school 3-5 miles away (and we are only 1 hr commuting from London so not remote) if only they had the building capacity to accommodate them.

Funny that the government patronises schools with suggestions that they should cut costs while blowing millions(billions?) on useless vanity projects and free schools that parents don't want to send their kids to.

I am in a one-form entry primary. Over the next 3 years our budget is set to go down by about 90k. We are set to lose all TAs other than those working 1:1 with children on EHCPs. All PPA cover and an increasing amount of supply work is now done by HLTA rather than a qualified teacher. I don't know where the rest of the cuts are supposed to come from or who is supposed to do everything that the TAs currently do (presumably the teachers, who already have a huge workload). It is frightening.

It's alright though cos like a few of us will be able to get into grammars.

The Grammars that DS and DD are also facing huge cuts. They're also cutting the choice of subjects e.g. German and Music won't be offered at A level.

I can't seem to see any school's that are actually gaining money.

Good educational standards require investment- both infrastructure and staffing. These are "real term" cuts and it seems to me schools are struggling as things stand. I can't think this will help improve standards.

I also think the funding discrepancies are terrible- poverty exists outside inner cities. Many rural areas face poverty every bit as real and problematic as the inner city areas. I understand why there has to be a London weighting, but the funding seems unfairly skewed in London's favour.

My friend is a teacher. She has recently left her job in state sector as she was told that she would have to take maths (and some chemistry) classes to fill in for shortages/increase efficiency in staff timetabling. She has no qualification in maths since A level and a very small amount of chemistry at university. She has very little knowledge as to the curriculum for these subjects, was given little guidance and no extra time for preparation. When she objected she was told the school didn't have the funding to fill the gaps and given the schools understanding of the cuts which were anticipated, this was only get to get worse so staff were going to "have to get used to it". They are also having difficulties recruiting maths, physics and chemistry teachers. I understand this is a problem nationally, though. She left, taking a job in an independent school as she did not feel able to teach these subjects (and at exam level) without the necessary experience.

Stories like these make me especially glad my DC are not in state school.

"the winners are likely to be the areas with poor exam results"

how much poorer? Bottom 5%? Bottom 25%? Any idea?

£300/pupil loss is about typical for our local schools, but I gather from this thread that they might get some of that back if < mediocre results.

Unfortunately I think we are entering an era where we can't rely on state schools to provide a suitable education for our children. Private schools or home schooling are going to become the only viable options unless something changes.

It is a hideous shitstorm and I get really pissed off when the DfE bleats on that the education budget is bigger than ever. Utter lying scumbags. WTF are they doing pouring money into vanity project free schools and grammars when the whole state sector is crumbling?!

The plan to turn all state schools into academies seems to be working via the back door though - in terms of making schools so desperate that they convert making the funding someone else's problem. This is what our local schools (primary & secondary) are currently doing in order to try and pool resources and save money.

It also means that in a year or so's time, the academies will be able to employ cheap staff, cut 'soft' subjects completely and save money that way too. Fucking appalling.

In my primary school (2 form entry) we have not replaced any staff who have left in the past year. This is 3 TAS and 1 full time teacher. All SLT have additional teaching responsibilities now too.

We also have children in pretty much every KS1 year group with significant support needs (physical, emotional & behavioural) who will simply not get the support they should have because there is no money for staff. It is sickening and impacts on every child negatively.

And although I'm not saying striking is the answer as teachers are not allowed to strike about any of this anyway - but standing up to this really has to come from every parent with a child in the state system. Your child WILL be affected by this and probably already has been...