School funding crisis

[Chilledpanda]

It's been hard to avoid conversations regarding the cuts recently. Friends with children in different schools are mentioning the schools asking for voluntary contributions etc and today I read about schools considering shortening the school week to save money.
I think both these options are a step backwards and a logistical nightmare for parents.
I know the biggest cost to schools is staffing but I think alot of money could be saved by schools adopting the American and Australian system of parents buying their own childrens exercise books, refil pads and stationary at the start of the year.
We can buy all these things relatively cheaply and would make a difference to school budgets.
Aibu to think this is an option?

agree Jellyfrizz. I also don't get the point about how there are more kids with special needs in schools nowadays as if somehow when I went to school there wasn't these sorts of issues. there were. and there weren't lots of special school places for these kids to go to either.

if we are really saying that a lot of the increased staffing is due to the need for more 1 to 1 support then surely bringing back schools for pupils with specific difficulties must be on the table again.

I get that everyone wants their child in mainstream education but if its so expensive to do this then why not find a new model.

still don't accept that my childrens schools need quite so many layers of office staff. honestly what the outcome be if of the 30+ that they have half were sacked.

The cost per head of a pupil in a specialist school is considerably greater than the cost per head to teach them in mainstream even with a 1:1. It was a cost cutting exercise by councils to close these specialist schools and transfer teaching to mainstream. I did have some figures but can't find them now - don't want to quote of the top of my head.

Jelly, I'm in 100% agreement with you.

mintinbox schools get funding per child regardless of the child's nationality and most immigrants work and pay taxes so why shouldn't their children get an education?

The problem with asking parents to supply books and pencils is the schools tend to want to use specific types of books such as line widths or square sizes and with the best will in the world a lot of parents really struggle getting their child too school dressed, with the right books on the right day, let alone sourcing and re buying the right books at the right time. I could see the school saying this was the bill for books, pens, pencils, crayons, glue etc this year so would you like to donate towards it. It might help some parents visualise the purpose of a donation rather than going into a general pot.

Fruit corner I didn't say that at all. It's the ones who rock up at school unable
To speak English who are a drain one the school. They don't get extra for that do they?

"if buying the essentials for my children would save teachers and support services in schools I'd be up for that."

Instead of that, fight - as a parent, and as a person interested in the futures of all young people - against this government's ideology-driven campaign to discredit state education. This is part of a strategy to get all schools privatised. You remember the academy thing a year ago - its just that in another form. Maybe you're cool with that. But buying your own books is pissing in the wind, frankly.

It's the ones who rock up at school unable
To speak English who are a drain one the school. They don't get extra for that do they?

These students don't cost any more money. I had a student start this year (into KS4) who barely spoke any English. I made her a list of key phrases in English and her home language, suggested she bought a dictionary, and spent 3 minutes every day with her checking that she didn't have any major problems. Some students don't even get that.

Special school placements are far more expensive than mainstream placements. Additionally if more children go to special school, there would need to be to lots of new schools built as those school buildings no longer exist. Many special schools are already over capacity.

A few years ago the figures for school in this area were something like:
Mainstream primary £3000 per pupil per year.
Moderate Learning disabled school £17000
Profound and multiple learning difficulties £23000

That's a big reason why children are kept in a mainstream primary school for as long as possible I think.

Ds's special school placement is £45 000 plus transport costs.

Spot on Rainbowchasing. Finally people are beginning to see the truth.

Spikey - similar figures here for my DS special placement, Iirc its approx £60k inc travel costs.

London/big city phenomenon.... but the champagne socialists who push up house prices around the best OFSTED state schools, make hundreds of thousands tax free on their capital and force poorer people out to crap schools, all the while flaunting their "we don't believe in private" credentials could stand to cough up a supplement IMO. They're saving £3-5k a term.

At the moment a special school wouldn't be right for ds - irrespective of cost surely we should be looking to find the setting that meets the needs of the child not just the one that keeps them out of sight and out of mind

The TAs will be 1-1/1-2 for those children with SEN. There's also a minimum ratio of adults to children that has to be met in primary schools.

I agree that stationary is a tiny part of the overall budget. There are lots of families who don't qualify for FSM, like us, who can't afford to buy stationary. We just get by as it is without that extra expense.

Academies cost a spectacular amount of money, some academies in my local area are in massive amounts of debt. I'll fight with everything I have to stop our school ever becoming an academy. It's bad enough that all our local high schools are academies, I don't want our primary changing to one too.

Our school has a reasonable number of admin staff for a 3 form entry school; 3 receptionists/office staff, school manager, head teacher, one deputy head, and 4 staff members who supervise inclusion, isolation and the SEN rooms, and one head of SEN/pupil premium. The rest of the staff, including the second deputy head and heads of early years, lower key stage 1, upper key stage 1 and key stage 2 all teach every day, along with the various TAs who are either general class TAs or 1-1 for specific children. We live in a deprived area with a high proportion of FSM children which creates a huge amount of paperwork, we also have a higher than average number of SEN children and stand to be hit hard by the funding cuts.

I've no idea of what else I can do about the cuts. I've already emailed my MP who is thankfully not a Tory, though what will happen with the election is anyone's guess. What else can we realistically do other than not vote Tory, which I never will, and email my MP?

jelly IME you are 100% right, it needs to be said that THE EMPEROR HAS NO CLOTHES - I find it incredible that grafting TAs are being disposed off while huge numbers of S*LT milk the system.

If the kids have to bring their own books and stationery, what happens when they don't? Because in other school systems they may receive zero marks for the class (and there for end up failing if the lack of equipment is persistent) or not be expected to make notes because it's not a required assignment. In our system, their book is checked by SLT every 4-8 weeks and, when they haven't completed enough work (due to lack of pen) or have responded to the marking in the wrong colour pen, then I (the teacher) am deemed to not be meeting my performance management targets and find myself without a pay rise next year. There is much more needs fixing about our system for this to work.

Parents buying stationery would be (to coin a cliche) the equivalent of rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

Budget cuts are crippling schools, in particular local-authority schools. The government's policy of privitisation by stealth works by taking money from LA school budgets to give to the private companies and individuals running free schools and academies, and to fund May's restoration of the secondary modern / grammar system.

If parents genuinely want to make a difference, you need to work on MPs. Write to your own MP, write to the education secondary, write to the PM, and tell them how much of an influence the cuts to school budgets will have on your vote. And you have to face facts - the Tories will continue to slash school budgets because they want to force state education into private hands. If you value your children's education, you should consider your vote very careful.

*carefully DYAC!

Mummymeister, I'm pretty sure that the number of children attending your grammar school with SEND would have been almost non-existent low. Therefore a low number of support staff would be needed.

I employ a TA 3 afternoons a week purely to put in place the speech and language programs put in place by the NHS SALT. Then we have those looking after children who need help with incontinence, tube feeding, ASD (social skills work).... the list goes on. All entitled to support, all deserving support and all about to lose a lot of it.

Then we could look at the fact that school have become one stop shops for supporting families with a range of needs. Social care is at breaking point so we employ a family support worker. She supports around 30% of our families. Who will help struggling parents if we lose her?

We have been trying to get people to see this problem for years. Shiny new free schools, waffle about "driving up standards" without the support of whinging teachers and altering qualifications have deflected attention away from the issue.

Realised it sounds as though I think teachers are whinging! I may be whinging but many of my colleagues are very stoical in the face of the shitstorm facing education.

Fairly sure the DfE would say we whinge though.

OP, students should buy their own refill paper, stationery etc. Schools should provide textbooks and exercise books. That's what my school did growing up. It's called being responsible and organised.

Re: classroom assistants. I agree with a pp. I never had them in my classes when I was growing up.

Now I'm a teacher myself. I teach a non core subject and rarely have a teaching assistant. I work in a tough school and I don't think they're that useful. In fact they can hinder. Many that I've had just chat with the students even when I'm teaching. It's awkward, how can I ask an adult who should know better to stop doing that? nd I'm a "good" teacher.

Another turned up for the first time during an observation. I had no warning he was coming and he stayed! He should have had the wear with all to leave.

It's awkward, how can I ask an adult who should know better to stop doing that?

Just stop talking and give them 'the stare' like you would to any one else disturbing your lesson.