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?

I have a friend on FB who did a tour of schools in China and Singapore recently. The facilities in state schools were unbelievable (although this was in the cities - not sure how it would be in rural areas). If the government wants our pupils to be able to compete, then they are going to have to invest in education, not decimate it.

I think there is an argument for cost saving by schools working together and sharing resources. How far do you go though?

A primary class still needs a class teacher. I think that's a minimum standard.

Secondary pupils deserve a teacher who is qualified and able to deliver the subject.

Schools need a range of experienced teachers and new blood.

I would say there are minimum expectations and schools are not able to even deliver those at the moment.

It is honestly terrifying. As both a teacher and a parent I am devastated by the utter destruction wrought on the Education system over the past few years. The unions are absolutely useless and parents I have spoken to have no idea of how bad things are. The problem is there is no organised, united campaign to fight.
We've got parents to fill in the consultation and write to our MP.

Another petition to sign.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/182705

As an ordinary parent I have no idea how this will affect my dd.We are rural with my dd in the only school in our catchment the next nearest secondary school in county is 15 miles away and there is no public transport there.Our school is one of the badly funded schools where some teachers are already teaching 2 GCSE subjects(the paperwork for that must be phenomenal).,there are more younger teachers and a big turnover this year.I can't see where cuts could come from if the school is negatively affected by this.

OFSTED seem remarkably quiet on this considering it is supposed to be an independent body responsible for standards and education.

Who is there to speak up for education who carries some weight with the Conservative party?

Well there's Gove of course .

Gove bottled it because he was trying to curry favour with Theresa May and get back into the cabinet.

OFSTED seem remarkably quiet on this considering it is supposed to be an independent body responsible for standards and education

Hmmm-are they really independent?

"The problem is there is no organised, united campaign to fight."

The campaign at DD's school is very well organised. So far they have had loads of meetings with parents and formed a Facebook group. Parents, teachers and students have written to our MP. Another MP has a child at the school and is also backing the campaign. The school has featured in the local and national press and been on local radio and TV. They even interviewed the HT in the TV studio last week.

This is how the cuts will impact the school

Grace. You are definitely talking about my school. I am expecting to be made redundant in the next round of cuts as I am the most expensive teacher in department and could easily be replaced by two teach first teacher.

Worrying that it's happening all over Everytime

Also in my thirties here and top of the payscale. I never imagined that I would feel so threatened by redundancy at such a young age, for being too experienced. I always thought I would continue to learn and gain experience and count myself as experienced and master of my craft in my 50s.

I honestly don't believe that at 38 grand for a full time teacher that it is expensive or poor value for money.

Had I known that my career would be so shaky in my 30s I never would have become a teacher.

It's scary to think that we can't collect our pension until we are what, 68? Yet we are only good value for money for the first 8-10 years?! What do we do for the remaining 35 years?

I think the idea is to stop teachers getting up the payscale above thirty k in the first place, and encourage the more experienced ones to quit.

Yep....and getting into a second career isn't easy or straightforwards. Id have trained in something else prekids if I'd known.

We've just had another letter about a teacher leaving due to "workload balance /spend more time with family". Same as the other bunch of teachers....

As parents we do have a voice and there are a couple of things we can do as parents to stop these cuts. Have you seen this campaign: Fair Funding For All Schools ?

If you have a minute do these two things (and spread the word)

First sign the petition: www.change.org/p/stop-school-funding-cuts-all-our-children-deserve-a-great-education

Second write to your MP. There is an example letter on this website to make it an easy process for busy parents! Have a look. Very interesting.

I'm following the campaign on FB and Twitter too. @FairFundSchools on Twitter and Fair Funding For All Schools on FB.

WE HAVE A VOICE!

OP YANBU.

We have until the middle of this week to contribute to the 'consultation'.

My Dc attend an 'outstanding' school that is already struggling to make ends meet, and stands to lose nearly £900 per pupil in the cuts.

They have employed many NQTs and TeachFirst staff to try and manage. In yr 9 with a TeachFirst teacher DS made no progress at all in Maths, except as self taught from the internet. 70% of his class failed to reach targets. It really undermined his confidence. The poor 'teacher' must have been miserable, the kids were openly mocking of his inability to teach, and was gone at the end if the year.

Thankfully DS caught up, but he is excellent at maths. A child who found maths harder may not have recovered from that missing year.

Education is our most valuable investment. They must find the money for ALL schools.

All of which will squeeze the less well off and leave many hugely disadvantaged, and widen the gaps in society

Yes. This so called meritocracy seems a bit strange, doesn't it?

I'm pretty certain I'll be made redundant once we are academised in a month. I'm too old at 45 and too expensive, despite my targets being especially crafted to prevent any pay rise (100% at expected or above : simply impossible with my class, with two global delay students, one of whom is still at the old p scale in year 5.....)

I'm desperately looking for new ideas.

This is so utterly short sighted and depressing.

Listening to parents at the school gates-particularly in KS1 and KS2-they do often actually seem to prefer younger teachers rather than Mrs Battleaxe that has been there for 20 years. Not everyone wants age and experience.

Our inner London primary is losing over 100k, and 5 long-term members of staff have just been made redundant. We have lost several other posts over the last few years, and all the extras like sport and music peripatetic teachers will go as well.
It will be just down to bare bones staffing, so the children and teachers ( who are already carrying a huge load) will be directly affected.
And I don't know what pay rises people are talking about, my pay has increased by about £30 over the last 4 years.

DevonMum, thanks for those links, will sign later. I'm not a teacher but have two young children, hate Tory policy and am genuinely concerned. My DC's lovely, lovely school is going to become an academy.

The head said to parents that they had no choice as would be forced to anyway and wouldn't survive the cuts long term otherwise. Of course parents voted overwhelmingly to support the proposal. What choice do we have - school have to jump before they are pushed.

Sadly, although I will fill out all those forms, I think we have no hope of reversing any of this with the current government; even Labour has no interest in anything education. I feel powerless as an NHS worker to change anything in the NHS crisis. What hope do I have as a non-expert in education? .