School will be closed at lunchtime one day a week from Sept

[Ilovecranberries]

The school (primary) had just informed the parents that they will be closing at lunchtime on one day a week from September to facilitate "planning".
I don't even know what to say. AIBU to think it is ridiculous? I am a single working parent, not sure how I am supposed to work around this. Extra childcare for these 3.5 hours at the local childminders rates will be £56 a week (two children here). Or two grand a year post tax. I probably will be told I am BU (I probably am), just very anxious right now.

What a ludicrous position this government has allowed to emerge. Utterly indefensible.

Does this mean the teachers reduce their wages in line with this to make these savings?

Individual teachers don't take a pay cut. They may have higher contact hours in a week as the statutory minimum contact hours are squeezed into 4.5 days with no cover, instead of 5 with cover for one morning/afternoon.

The saving is that an additional teacher is not required to do that PPA cover. A PPA cover teacher could teach 4.5 days or 9 classes of PPA cover in a week, so a 2 form entry primary school would need 1.5 teachers for PPA cover. If an average teacher cost is approx £40k per year (not just salary, also employer's NI and pension contributions) then you're looking at £60k a year. Obviously a bit less if you use HLTAs.

When schools can't afford basics like glue sticks, £60k is a huge saving. It's a tough decision to make, but it needs to be weighed up against other spending priorities and evidence of what would have most educational impact.

@Parker231

Surely it’s up to the individual if they decide to wear a face mask. We were in a queue to go into John Lewis today and got chatting to the family in front of us. Their DC’s are six and eight - were wearing face masks and the parents said the DC ‘s would be wearing them when they went back to school in September.

Government guidance is clear that face masks are to be removed on entry to the building and not to be worn at school.

Government guidance is clear that face masks are to be removed on entry to the building and not to be worn at school.

That might be the government guidance but a) it's guidance b) the government arent going to send in spies to check what goes on in school c) it will ultimately be at the discretion of head teachers and teachers about how they handle that - they may feel its fine if it reassures some parents and children d) if a six and eight year old can get through a day without taking it off i will be bloody amazed!

In all seriousness though, a child who has parents who are extremely at risk, may be given leave to wear a mask in school if they chose to do so and don't need to be nagged constantly about it, and I'm sure in some cases this will be allowed, regardless of what some dickhead in Whitehall wrote in a report making recommendations.

So justajot to put into context how many hours on average are teachers contracted to do a week and how many of them are contact and how many are non contact? How are school funds made up are they an allocation of cash per pupil head? And last question you mentioned glue sticks? For educational requirements such as pens, glues, paper etc where do schools purchase from is it a reservation secured at lower pricing from a central purchasing system?

@Endoftether2000

justajot has given a good explanation of where the savings come from, however, if you can bear it, here's a bit more information for me.
Cost of a teacher is around £40k, including costs to the school. Cost of an HLTA to school is around £23k. This is what the school pays out, but as stated by justajot, includes what I believe are called 'on costs'-money which does not form part of the salary. For context, of the £23k cost of an HLTA, salary accounts for around £16 -17k. So that is a massive saving for a school. The length of time an HLTA is allowed to cover a class will depend on the school/LA/academy trust. Also, it is worth noting that not all TAs are HLTAs. When I did my HLTA preparation and assessment, we had to attend a number of sessions over the course of a year. We were expected to build quite a large portfolio of evidence as well as being observed teaching by our teacher mentor, headteacher and the assessor. The assessor also spent a whole day on school scrutinising our portfolios and interviewing the teacher mentor, headteacher and the candidate. I don't know how the present online courses compare. I am giving this information explain why an HLTA is paid a higher rate than a general TA. A general TA earns around £13000 in our area. They are paid hourly, so any variation in their working time has an effect on their salary and therefore, sending TAs home for gal a day each week can have an enormous impact on school budgets. In our school, it would save the equivalent of 1 whole TA annually. And our school does not have a huge number of TAs. I know some schools who have between 20 and 30 - the potential savings there are huge.
The bulk of the money coming on to the school is allocated on a per pupil basis. Pupil premium money etc is also allocated per entitled pupil. The local infant school which feeds into us, is proposing to reduce their intake by one class per year. This will impact our budget by around £80k+ pa.
The responsibility for spending the budget is the headteacher's, but governors do scrutinise the budget and are supposed to ensure it is being well managed.
Teachers are not contracted to work a certain number of hours per week. There is a requirement for them to complete a certain number of directed ours annually but there is also a requirement that they do as many hours to do their job well - hence the number of hours they work at home in the evening and at weekends. Those hours are included in their annual salary which is why, when you decide their salary by the number of hours actually worked, so many of them actually earn less than NMW.
Purchasing depends on local arrangements - our LA insists that schools use certain suppliers and does not allow for purchases to be made via the internet. Our MAT, otoh, insists that schools get best value and internet purchases are allowed but we have to show that the best price was obtained on that particular day. Same applies to thongs like utilities. Running a school these days really is more akin to running a small business rather than an educational establishment.
Hope this is helpful.

Our local primary school is only going back 2 days a week in September, never Ming taking 1 afternoon off. Childcare is going to be ridiculous.

When looking at teachers' hours 'off' if a school closes for an afternoon, it's also worth noting that the govt is now saying that schools need to make a full programme of remote learning available immediately for any pupil who is at home because of self isolation, and that the provision needs to be much higher quality than what many schools were providing before lockdown. That is potentially going to take an awful lot of time each week for teachers to sort out, given that they will now all be back in the classroom all day.

Irishbookworm

That’s awful! Are you in Ireland?

It might get a bit like some (not all ) muslim girls in our local schools - rush to take off the head covering as soon as away from parents and in the safety of school. Parents worrying about granny getting covid might send child in with mask and child whips it off the second they get into the school grounds.

In wales there is no sd by children in schools and teachers can go between classes as it's adults that must sd from each other but as long as 2m it's fine.

Yes CountessFrog, NI. I’m fortunate enough to be a SAHM, no idea how working parents will cope. Most secondary schools are going back one week on & one week off.

A general TA earns around £13000 in our area.
I had no idea it is so low. Tbh gladly hire a TA as a before / after school nanny on this kind of salary, would work out cheaper than a childminder.

I live in Scotland and our primary schools have done this for years. I work longer hours Monday to Thursday to give me Friday afternoon off. I actually like the early start to the weekend if I'm honest. I realise this may not be something every employer can accommodate, but might be worth asking if a slight change to your hours can be accommodated?

It’s going to be a nightmare for employers as well as employees. Businesses need to get back to normal operations so they can try and survive going forward. There are going to be limits to flexibility employers can give unless employees reduce their hours (and pay) and the employer recruits for the gaps in their workplace.

I'd go mad personally. It's hard times but I have to do my job 100% of the time, I know they need to plan but think school need to be aiming for 100% of their normal teaching time. How they do that is their business but shortening school days isn't on. They've had 6 months of us picking up the slack and working two jobs so I'd expect more understanding. I think this is why our school are back full time in September with the usual wraparound care.

So, so far we have Teachers contracted to 180-195 days a year. For some they will not have fulfilled 0-80 days of this contractual obligation due to Covid. You advise that many work over and above these hours due to being able to do their job well. This is a cultural thing that is generally in every bodies contract whatever sector. Our outdated laws for all create this overworked society, look at the pension age creeping up. So gooseberry cake in my head virtual teaching should have been going on all through lockdown. My daughter had 1 hour a week with a tutor group session where they could not speak. Unsure why Microsoft teams could not have been put in place for all lessons certainly for Older children? LAs insist you use certain suppliers for a reason Erictheavocado. The reason is if you buy from them The Purchasing professionals can see how much is being bought. This gives you bargaining power. For purchasing contracts. If all the Schools in your LA are doing the same thing then this shows a decrease in use and power. All purchases have a cost. To create a one of purchase for a business is the equivalent of spending £50. So when people see a pen 10p cheaper it never really is. But then there is the common adage amongst Purchasing Professionals, everyones a Buyer. So yes it should be treated like a business. Are Head Teachers business people? As for you Irish book worm how is that primary school justifying going back for two days? That is do wrong on every level.

So yes it should be treated like a business. Are Head Teachers business people?

No, they're not generally, though there may be exceptions. Which is why a school needs an efficient Business Manager. I worked at a primary school for 18 years and saw the job of school secretary change to Bursar and then to School Business Manager as the role of the job changed and became more demanding. We had one person in the role who was very efficient but not very tactful, then one who was the complete opposite - knew her finance, but was unable to refuse requests to spend money, so the spending got higher than it should. Finally we got someone who knew exactly how to make the best use of the ever-reducing spending power money without antagonising those who wanted to spend the money, with the result that the school was in a much better position financially.

I know some teachers had very light workloads during lockdown, others worked way more than usual. Lots were doing a lot of pastoral support for families in difficulty instead of teaching. But regardless, teachers were doing what their individual schools asked of them. And it's now water under the bridge. You can't say in September, oh, you didn't do that much work in May, therefore you now have to work a 60 hour week.

So gooseberry cake in my head virtual teaching should have been going on all through lockdown
and never mind if a substantial proportion of children were completely unable to access these virtual lessons for all the reasons outlined over and over on these threads.

Gooseberrycake I accept what you are saying but in perspective. Teachers have not seen any financial loss in this Pandemic. They have still been paid from March through to July to do a proportion of what they are contracted to do. People who work, have seen their childrens education decimated. People who are involved in education have been told they need to be back to some near normality in September. Us as Taxpayers need you all to be on board to accommodate it! Yes some Teachers will have to have worked more than others. That would appear to be a unfair balance on the share of the workload during Covid by your Head teachers. Our local school were on a rota which from what I understand they went in once a fortnight. The only time those teachers contracted children were right near the end. Reason somebody had made a comment on Facebook about the lack of the following. Contact with the children. Not following the advisory about work being able to collect for the children. Not having any structured teaching plans for parents to teach the children. The list is endless!
It is not really water under the bridge as unfortunately like businesses, Teachers may need to put in the hours they have been paid for and not worked now that they can. From your post it would appear that you are already unhappy about putting in more effort for online classes. It would appear that the unions and the Teachers are the prevention to honest working people being able to return to work as normal. Like they have been told to do by the Government. The schools need to be operational as per pre Covid. If they are not, the economy may come to a total crashing halt. If it does the pensions you are promised will no doubt also become at risk.

I am so on board with you Rusty Bear the government should look at those that can teach. Those that can't manage the business! I can see cost savings all over!!! Which is needed when budgets are being cut

I often work up to 100 hours a week in May when there are extreme pressures, does that mean I can go without working for the rest of the term - June and July because I already fulfilled my quota?

What that means is there is a disparity in work load that needs addressing a Business Manager would address this!

It wouldn't, my friends worked in the 'holy grails' of schools..and the workload was worse, 3 had a breakdown and one left the country. That was run as a business and they were told at a meeting of SLT this is how we run our business and the door is there if you want to walk.