To ask Headteachers and SLTs is it really that bad?

[Paris2023]

Press since the start of term and now more recently has focussed on schools running out of money. Perhaps having to shorten days to cover outgoings. With more recent news of further austerity and I believe limited funding what do current HTs and members of SLTs think?

what is the solution if more money isn’t available? A lot of money is being swallowed by higher energy bills.

I think we have been lucky so far here personally. Each class still has multiple TA’s running free after school clubs etc and the local secondary gets a lot of funding from big companies basically paying for their staff of the futures training.

our old school however are cutting TA’s no head teacher, cutting everything they can.

Absolutely spot on!

I did 6 weeks without an admin due to recruiting issues and it was hell. I was coming in at 5.30am to try and get ahead and went home sobbing most evenings and spent 6 hours in school every weekend as well as working until 11pm most nights.

This is precisely why MATs are such a shocking waste of public money. Every member school has to pay a percentage of its income into the MAT pot which then funds pointless so-called CEO’s and a raft of School Improvement Officers. The irony, of course, is that neither MATs nor their CEO’S have demonstrated any measured improvement in education outcomes for schools whatsoever. And meanwhile staff numbers are cut, schools can’t even afford the basics and SEND is non existent. Don’t get me wrong, 12 years of funding cuts is the main problem but when there’s so little money available and it’s the pupils and staff who are suffering, it makes my blood boil that MAT CEO’s continue their ludicrous posturing. But getting rid of them… as much chance of that happening as our new PM calling a general election, or turkeys voting for Christmas etc 😡

@LaSpooney but if you are in a state maintained school you have a top slice taken off by the LEA and still have to pay extra for some services

Really depends on the borough and the intake. I work in a LB Westminster school and tbh we are quite well funded. Totally different to my experience in LB Brent which was so poor.

Only for basic HR and finance, not to the extent of creating CEO roles

But the top slice taken by LEA can be more than the central fund used by MAT to pay CEO and other staff

It's less from the GAG than MATS take. And in a MAT, you have to pay for everything.

A school in my area has seen its energy bill go from £20,000 when the budget was written up in July to £80,000 at the beginning of September. Where is that extra £60,000 supposed to come from?

Try being a special school with a hydrotherapy pool. Absolutely eye-watering.

Glad you’re not suggesting volunteers can replace TAs as TAs are qualified and in my school don’t wash paint pots and listen to readers. They take children out of class for phonics, numeracy support, emotional well-being, speech and language, Thrive etc etc.

Can only imagine the struggle to pay the new electricity bills 😞

spot on! It will take generations to turn these institutions around with, as always, better funding and serious competitive salaries for the teaching profession.

Excellent support, pay, career progression etc. The foundation of a fairer society is built on outstanding and equal opportunities for all our children..

The rich may be getting richer and the gap widening between the socio economic groups. But what does this future look like?
Gated communities away from increasing violent crime from kids who grew up with an educational system that struggled to provide the basics. The dystopian future is not far away unless urgent action is taken.

@juggleit I’ve been having a very similar conversation with my DH this evening. The rich poor gap, how it is in the absolute best interests of our country to put education first. I saw on BBC News how they’d done a graphic of the new PMs inbox, NHS & Social Care, Economy and something else but not Education.

DH disagreed with me and said Health and Social Care is a priority over Education, but I said isn’t a better educated society healthier? Require less social care? I feel like a lot of PPs there will be a papering over the cracks.

I don’t want to be accused of simplifying but taking all of above we must lobby our MPs.

I work in education finance and planning for an LA. I am also a governor and I clerk governing bodies.

And yes, it is "that bad". There will be schools closing because of the finance crisis. I don't mean temporarily, I mean permanently, it's becoming more and more challenging for schools - particularly small schools and/or undersubscribed schools to survive, administratively and financially. The new funding formula for schools that are not academies means schools in some areas (read: areas that don't vote for the ruling party) have had their funding cut further.

I don't doubt that there will be some here who think teaching "is not a proper job", that teaching staff "only work 6 hours a day" and "they get 13 weeks holiday a year", and should be paid accordingly. I guess that's why teaching is such an attractive proposition and there are millions of people applying to be teachers and none leaving it. Oh.

Generally, they get quite good services for that. MATs in the main do not

I’m starting to think it’s not a good idea for our local primary to join a MAT. But I think by now it’s pretty much done, they’re consulting parents now but all the letters have been persuasive.

@Paris2023, my school have disbanded the governing body and have replaced them with (something I can't remember the name of).
It's all about removing the local opinion as a deciding factor.

Our possible options for Education Secretary

Hope Rishi gets rid of Jonathan fucking Gullis.

@vipersnest1 if MAT there will be Trustees who will also be Company Directors. They are the ones who hold the Trust to account, governors have to take on a slightly different role, per Governance guidance

We all must contact our MP’s as a matter of urgency to get Education back on the agenda. It has to be an absolute priority.

You can easily write to your MP using www.writetothem.com

Ask for your email to be forwarded to the Secretary of State for Education (whoever that may be, currently Kit Malthouse) and you should get a response from the DfE.

I think Kemi is a very refreshing young MP - I think if she got her hands on the job she could really turn things around - well one can only hope 🙏

She wanted to get rid of all superfluous staff in schools (like teaching assistants) and strip the curriculum back to purely academic subjects so we're fucked if it's Kemi.