Schools 3 day a week?

[Sunflowerkeep]

Is this for real or just media again? Is it seriously being considered?

It won't happen but it is showing that some schools are in a terrifying position.

In July we discussed this at our last SLT meeting and we are are looking at needing approximately £160,000 more next year for energy and food that we don't have a budget for. We also haven't accounted for the teacher pay increase and we are literally at the point of saying if we bring in the pay increase there will have to be redundancies. This leaves us in a bit of a pickle though as we already have classes of 34 in several year groups, and are struggling to fill TA positions for our 1-1 students (no one is applying and we can't pay any more).

We already rent the building out for conferences and to home schooling teams to do practical assessments, even had a weight watchers group in, but we can't make the books balance anymore unless we lose valuable staff.

They can extend it all they like if schools aren't able to practically offer the hours.

Restoring school funding to the levels it was at in 2010 would be a start.

How would that work anyway?

Parents are not suddenly going to magically be able to switch their jobs to part-time hours and pick up the slack two days a week.

The government seriously needs to get its act together, realise that utility companies are creating a national emergency and it is time to re-nationalise the lot...Because schools, hospitals, small businesses and individuals can no longer afford their bills and that is simply is going to bring everything crashing down in term of the economy and society in general.

I believe neither Johnson or Truss are up to the challenge though and we also should have a temporary government that brings all the parties together to fix this mess and then have a general election.

Our situation is dire as well. A small village school, been in deficit a number of years.

Our numbers are falling too. We're having to really push advertising for bums on seats.

Basically we're looking at either being forced to join an academy or combining classes (which nobody wants as that would mean 3 year groups in one class), or losing our full time head teacher.

Feel sorry for the many children fire him school is a safe place, where they are fed.

@pointythings of course they need more investment and funding! I was just saying there are things they can do before closing schools. And turning the heating down or off when not needed takes no extra money, just better management.

People have literally been saying this on every thread about energy bills. If homes can’t pay them, how can schools, hospitals and other public buildings.

LOL at making schools academies will help, the director levels of pay and all the supporting pay, head office etc, would fund a whole school of teachers but that money is diverted away.

This is the worst legacy of the Covid restrictions, closing schools at the drop of a hat is seen as a viable option. It is not. It was a travesty it happened at all, it wasn’t worth it for Covid, and should never happen again

No it shouldn’t happen. However saying it shouldn’t and just ignoring the fact that schools are potentially going to be 100ks in deficit won’t work either. Public buildings needs solutions and they need them now.

No doubt the Daily Mail are turning this into a ‘lazy teachers just want to work less’ confrontation when it’s all to with budgets.

Trebled energy bills was one thing, but government announcing staff pay rises (but not funding them) right as term ended has utterly destroyed most school budgets-they simply don’t balance any more.

We are looking at redundancies.

@Insomniac2507 it isn't actually as simple as just turning off the heating in a lot of buildings. I worked in an older building in the NHS and because of the way the heating system was engineered, it wasn't a simple matter of just turning down a thermostat. It took an engineer visit every time - and that cost money. A lot of schools are in older buildings where even simple measures are not simple.

I am opposed to closing schools - I've seen the effect on my DD2 and her peers - but ultimately the solution is proper investment and we will not get that from this government.

I flagged this up as an issue weeks ago on a discussion about energy rises. Schools and hospitals are going to need to find astronomical amounts of money. I expect we will see many public buildings like govt offices, libraries, leisure centres having much reduced hours whether schools will also need to reduce classroom time, I guess it’s a possibility.

They could do something like a three day week oct-feb and then continue it over the summer holiday, when they won’t need heating. It will be very unpopular, because everyone lurrrves the long vac. I think we are now in actual crisis and you can’t go around saying ‘oh but we like the long holidays, that won’t do at all’ like it’s it some sort of whim. It’s a case of keeping schools open and a least worst option, isn’t it? I’m not hearing any better ideas.

Why not just A) ask the parents for help, I would rather pay a 1/210 of the energy bill increase (£142 based on a 30k increase) than have to find childcare for two days a week. Considering how popular the breakfast club is I imagine most parents will feel the same.
B) turn the temperature down even in November DS comes home in a polo shirt as it's been too hot to have his jumper on.
C) close the windows like every other winter COVID is everywhere we are all going to get it at least once a year.

They pick their times to speculate it - slap bang in the middle of the summer holidays when half the parents are on the verge of a metal breakdown!

@Grumpybutfunny if we close windows and stop ventilation then more staff will get covid and will need to be off work so class closures are more likely to happen. I've had covid twice now and both times I got it badly. No way would I be able to teach.

I work in am old school and we are freezing in November. The children wear fleeces on top of their jumpers so I can't see turning the heating off as an option.

Lastly, asking parents to fund would be good for those who can afford it but there are a high number of families who are already relying heavily on food banks. The government need to step in. We don't want three day school weeks- the impact on the children would be detrimental but we do need reasonable working conditions. Heat and ventilation are essential.

It won't happen

Just like they won't have hospitals on a 3 day week.

I would think the solution is to start charging for certain things at school. Most other countries require you to buy your own writing books and art supplies for example or pay a small amount per term as contribution
ie here child have to take own pencils/ glue/ scissors/ exercise books, and buy each book required for study such as in English. It’s £12 per term for ‘extras’ supplied by school. Then you pay for some other bits like trips.

It is a ‘voluntary’ contribution in case not affordable for everyone. But works out for the year around £100 per child. Which although is an extra cost, is good value I think for the full time education you get.

Unfortunately I can see this happening as the government have reduced school budgets over the last years.

Schools can not ask parents for monetary donations towards funding the school. They can ask parents to pay towards certain costs I.E. money towards art supplies they can not ask for money towards covering costs of salaries and bills.

Schools like all other business do not have a upper cap on energy bills so they will go up a lot more then home bills.

I do think that teachers should get a proper pay rise inline with inflation, but of course this will have add on costs for the additional costs for NI and pension contributions. And as far as I am aware school can not run a deficit budget.

Just ask parents for help? This would only work if there are parents willing to pay not only their share, but also the share of all those families who can’t heat their homes at all this winter.
Also, lots of us in our primary school caught Covid twice in one term - the summer term, even with the windows open. I’m so pleased that our health is a sacrifice you’re willing to make to keep children in schools.

No they will just cancel all operations that aren't emergency, so waiting list will increase even more.

It’s absolute bollocks. Some loon on twitter says it and suddenly everyone is ranting about workshy school staff again. It’s never been discussed as an option for any school I know of and will never happen.

This. My dcs school had to extend the school day by 10 minutes as apparently they were just below the time they have to be open every week. No way they will then drop 2 days.

@Magicandspiders I think this is going to be the issue. DS's school is very modern so imagine reasonable to heat and as it's is RC you either need to be catholic and put in the time and effort to get them into school or if you are going for one of the remaining places live in the most expensive part of town so parents are more likely to be able to help out.

I think schools should ask for donations not just towards heating bills but to boost funding if parents are willing and able to help then the schools could benefit.

Teacher should get the booster, be cheaper than opening windows. 5 days of teacher sickness is better than weeks of 3 day weeks for the kids.