Schools 3 day a week?

[Sunflowerkeep]

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

Academies and free schools don’t have to follow the national curriculum.

There’s an item in today’s Times but suggesting 4 days rather than the Mail’s 3.

I can see more schools opting for a 4.5 day week, especially just to see them through this winter as the 32.5 hours per week expectation is from September 2023.

It would also be interesting to see how many teachers would return to the profession after being made redundant.

With recruitment and retention being so low, redundancies will not help.

It would be a disaster. But there is not enough money for many schools to run next year as they run this year, not if they honour the pay deal. That's the bottom line.

We don't cook at our school we don't have a kitchen.

Academies are dire. Give people who know nothing about education loads of money and then nothing is available for the children who need one to one

We already switch heating off at 11 and made 4 redundancies...

Can't see how things can get tighter.

Academies are not allowed to run on deficit budgets.
Apparently, the cost cutting Tsar sent around schools a few years back was hopeless.

I agree, but we have no teachers left (we are understaffed) to make redundant and very few TAs and cover supervisors left.

The only technicians that we have left are food/technology, and science if they went teachers would have to prep their own lessons (chaos would ensue) and this has to be done around covering missing spots on the timetable.

The problem with academy chains is that you are doubling up of staff.
Back in the days when all schools were under county control there was one set of advisors, HR, payroll etc. All schools were covered by this. With academies each chain has its own advisors, HR, middle management etc. So let’s say a town has 50 schools, previously all of those 50 schools would have everything managed centrally by county. One set of HR staff, for example, one set of advisors. Now those 50 schools might be run by 25 different Academy chains. Each of those is employing HR staff, advisors etc. and that’s before we get to managers creaming of money.
Academies are never going to save money. Also, the ownership of the building goes to the chain. They then have to manage the maintenance, which some don’t bother to do. Look at Bright Tribe for example.

Wouldn't you boil a kettle for that, if there's no hot water, rather than cancel a lesson

in a high school, catering for 750+ meals per day, your response to there being no hot water is to boil a kettle? How’s that going to work? How are you going to prevent cross-contamination of foods if items are sitting around waiting to be cleaned? Or how do staff keep themselves clean between different tasks?

I suppose it saves 2/5ths of gas/electricity bills (and salaries)...

Unless they get rid of school hols and get kids to do, say, Tues, Wed, Thurs every week with the odd week off...pre-booked/flexible...like you would if you were, say, an adult, in a job?
Most parents WFH these days, so how hard can it be to sit a 5yo in front of the TV with Peppa Pig (on mute) and a bag of crisps for 8hrs?🤯

And that's where the reduced days thing comes in. Because the only way to get rid of staff is to reduce teaching.

It wasn't for the kitchen, it was for food tech lessons.

The kitchen would use a dishwasher.

But it won't happen. Schools aren't going to turn the hot water off.

The excuse for even more cuts will be "but we had to give the teachers a pay rise"
Cue articles in the papers and many, many threads on here about lazy, greedy teachers.....

We have already cut support staff to the bone-the only LSAs we have now are 1:1 and provided for (well, not entirely!) through High Need funding.

Our deputy is already class-based, as is the senco so no cuts could be made there. We could make UPS staff redundant and either replace them with ECTs or TAs-I can’t see where else to save money on staffing?

Maybe they should sack the Tsar and save a few quid?

Heat it up on what? We have no stove, no oven, no kettle. Some people are really struggling with the sentence that 'we have no kitchen'. I'll wait for you to explain your problem solving skills with this one and how to heat water without any means to do so.

also been told that we won't be allowed to hold holiday revision classes next year because they can't afford to pay us, and they don't want the extra energy costs.

That's worrying - though actually getting subject teachers is also an issue even for DS now Y11.

Last year they were very cold at school because the window were open all the time for ventilation - concessions were made they could wear thermal underwear or T-shirts under shirts and later were allowed coats in classrooms - but they often came home cold and wanting the house warm especially if the fixed seating plan had put them next to window- which this year will be harder to achieve as we try and cut back.

First day back there both on-line - so I could see the school doing 1 day on-line learning perhaps with most vulnerable allowed into IT suite but nothings been said so far - I don't see how it would work with primary schools as so many parents work and won't be around to supervise.

@Ithinkthatisenoughnowthanks

If your talking about hot water for school meals and cooking. You can say we aren't proving hot meals and go to packed lunch only. If the school pays the gas bill for cooking then I think packed lunch only would be the easiest way to save

This is why my DD went on the International circuit 9 years ago. She has a proper work life balance. Recently returned as been in UK during holidays. School paid for flights for 4 .Her husband also a teacher and 2 granddaughters who are getting schooling as part of the package.

Then you don't need to do any washing up? It was for food tech lessons, presumably they do have cooking facilities otherwise where are all these dirty pots and pans coming from?

I don't think Academies can run a deficit, unlike traditional 'state' schools. They are given X amount of money from the Department of Education, and that's it. They're certainly not going to be dipping into their management's private accounts to pay for any of it, so when the money's gone, it's gone.

FWIW actions taken in school when there is no hot water (for whatever reason).

• provide extra hand sanitiser (pre covid)
• change the school menu so more "clean" food is used. You probably wouldn't use fresh chicken, for example.
• food tech staff to consider what changes they need to make, in the same way the kitchen does.
• remind staff and students that hygiene continues to be important, but it's the action of washing with soap that makes things clean, hand hot water makes not difference to germs killed.
• buy some kettles if necessary 😆

Spot the expert who last went to school 30 years ago. You should be an academy chain boss - you’d fit right in.