Education Education Education

[LimburgseVlaai]

Why isn't education being shouted about ?

The government has made savage cuts to the education budget - see here.

Unlike the government, schools are not allowed to budget for a deficit. They cannot borrow money. Result? Schools are having to make people redundant.

How can this be right??

And why aren't people shouting about it in the election campaign?

Are we so bludgeoned by news about the NHS, welfare cuts, Brexit, that there is just no brain space or no news space for education?

[Orlantina]

I've heard nothing positive from Theresa May about education.

It's like she doesn't want to invest in education.

[StillDrivingMeBonkers]

Unlike the government, schools are not allowed to budget for a deficit. They cannot borrow money. Result? Schools are having to make people redundant.

Really? My sons school is nearly 1/2 million and has an overdraft with the bank?

[needsahalo]

My data analyses last year showed a consistent pattern that the smaller my classes, the better their progress was. The smaller the class, the weaker the students, but I could get around them and personalise their learning in a smaller setting. Teaching 15 weaker kids was much easier than the top sets of 35 where they were shoe horned in and it was physically difficult to walk around the room

Not rocket science,is it?!

In my school (which I will be running away from come July....freedom!) couldn't physically fit more than about 34 in the majority of classrooms - some are smaller amd we already struggle to get in 30-32. It is new build as well. Millions spent on it.

We will see more and more unqualified teachers in academies. We will see serious mental health issues in the teachers that are left - I predict qualified HODs with unqualified teams around them within 10 years.

[needsahalo]

Actually. Within 5 years it will be common. 10 years the norm.

[GraceGrape]

In my school, we haven't seen a supply teacher for two years. Any absences, including sickness of a week or more, are covered by TA's.

I teach 3 days a week. I spent my day off yesterday marking books. I spent today delivering leaflets around my town about school cuts.

[YoullNeverWeeAlone]

Orlantina "Fuck Off!" is what I scream at the TV and radio. I try to hold it back when the DC are in the car but I fear what language they are learning.

[QueenofLouisiana]

Trimming the fat = teachers buying the resources themselves. I've bought around £350 worth of resources this year: £60 on RE books, £45 on reading resources, £40 on maths, £50 on history, £50 on books to support my understanding of SEN. £10 here and there on audiobooks, dvds, stationery.... Then add on website subscriptions.

If you assume all teachers do similar (they all do in primary), that's a few thousand each year on each school. The resources are used on the children we teach- not exactly useful to us in our real lives.

But yes, I realise I'm a whining teacher who should be thankful for my holidays and (massively reduced) pension.

[Tomorrowillbeachicken]

I think a lot of the parents donate books to our school. I've donate my sons ort books as he has gone past the need for them as have others. At our school we are also fund raising as a group of parents to help.

[squishysquirmy]

Random anecdote:
My massively right wing younger sister (and I mean super Conservative, big fan of Thatcher) qualified as a primary school teacher a few years ago. She is, from what I can tell, amazingly dedicated to her job - spends a lot of her own money on equipment, will stay up all night sometimes preparing work etc...
She has recently admitted to me, in private conversation, that she "sees the point of trade unions now", which is a big deal if you know her like I do! Nothing I could ever say (and we have had some interesting "debates" in the past) would have even the slightest affect on her political opinions, but two years working in education
have. She will probably still vote Conservative, of course, but is leaving the UK to work abroad.

[caroldecker]

Echt et al - physical space obviously matters in terms of class size. Sizes of 15 or less give better outcomes, but 30 vs 35/40 is irrelevant in terms of outcomes.
Foxy I said nothing about langauges, humanities, some technology. School should be about academic subjects - everything else should be outside the school remit. State schooling was designed to mimic public schools, but do not have the budget. If it were concentrated on educating children, rather than bringing them up, current funding would be more than enough.

[caroldecker]

Foxy to clarify languages, humanities and some technology count as academic subjects IMO.

[blerp]

"You don't care about your children's education because..."

Yay another momentum-aligned random poster here to tell us whether we care about dcs or not, all about life and jobs etc

You're probably 19 and still at uni tbh.

[noblegiraffe]

Always better to call someone a Momentum shill than defend Tory education policy. Because you can do one thing and not the other.

[Orlantina]

Yay another momentum-aligned random poster here to tell us whether we care about dcs or not, all about life and jobs etc


Do you care about the state of education in the UK at the moment?

[Alfieisnoisy]

Nothing to do with Momentum and everything to do with real cuts.

Two years ago I could see the way it was going and no way was I prepared to leave my child in a mainstream school struggling because his LSA was being diverted here, there and everywhere to plug gaps in funding. I went to war with the local authority and he is now in a special school with no more than 10 to a class AND dedicated LSA's on top.

I pity any child with SEN stuck in mainstream now as their LSA will be used more and more in other areas leaving the child they SHOULD be helping to flounder.

THAT IS A MASSIVE ISSUE....and has fuck all to do with Momentum.

Those of you defending this Government are a fucking disgrace and need the wool pulling from your eyes.

[AnArrowToTheKnee]

Carol if I hadn't done drama, dance, music at school, I wouldn't have had access to those activities. We just didn't have the money for classes or workshops, and my parents didn't have the skills to teach these subjects themselves, or the interest in doing so. Should I have missed out on subjects I enjoyed and was good at because i didn't have the recsources rich kids did?

[makeourfuture]

Always better to call someone a Momentum shill than defend Tory education policy.

Yes. There really is no defence for Tory education policy. It's not working....and it punishes those who need it the most.

[camperlass]

Hi, I've never posted before but I felt I had to after reading this post! There is a lot of action going on in my area (W Sussex) protesting school cuts. Various campaigns, some organised by Headteachers (Worthless) and some by concerned and committed parents (Save our Schools), have been fantastic at raising awareness of this problem. The issue for our region is particularly bad, and it has even been debated in parliament, but nothing has been done. It's like the government nods its head and saying 'yes, yes, we agree, it's terrible, we'll take your views into consideration...' and then does NOTHING about it. People down here are getting angry. We need this campaign to go viral and countrywide - this is our children's futures we are talking about, we can't afford to be complacent, for their sakes.

[squishysquirmy]

camperlass: It is a shame that the GE was called with so little notice- I think that in strongly Conservative areas like yours which have a lot of strong opinion about a specific issue (like schools) it would have been very interesting to see Independent candidates run. A bit like Dr Louise Irvine standing on behalf of the NHA against Jeremy Hunt in SW Surrey. Is there anything like that happening in Sussex? I don't know much about the area.

[camperlass]

squishysquirmy: There are independent candidates running in a few constituencies I think, but more on the health side of things than education. Our Labour candidate is brilliant - she's a mum herself and involved with the SOS campaign. I think she will get a good level of support here. I can't speak for other constituencies. I personally feel that the only way we are going to get a decent level of funding in education is by getting the Tories out, since they seem hell bent on pushing selective education and schools as self-financing businesses, but there are a lot of people who think they will have to just give in and put more money in the education pot in the end, and I can't see that happening to be honest. They've had chance after chance to do that and they've not budged an inch :-(