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.

That sounds so tough- it sounds like you were pretty healthy financially previously as well.

I agree, for the moment I think most schools are holding on (and MATs may not have approved pay increases yet) but I guess the fear is as well that things are only going to get worse- so if reserves are spent this winter, what happens next year? Or if there is an unexpected spate of staff illness in the summer term etc, when reserves might have paid for supply staff etc.

I do think this could be the nail in the coffin for some small primary schools etc, which will equally be potentially very damaging to those communities.

Wow! It’s a big job in a secondary school for one person, can’t imagine how it went with teachers having to add it on as well. In the school I work at there are lots of occasions when parents think their kids have gone to school when they haven’t, if they weren’t to find out until late in the day the consequences could be disastrous

I'm on MAT leave but it seems the situation is pretty dire. They can't afford MAT cover for me and have written me a timetable being covered by a HLTA. I return in January but am actually pregnant again (a surprise) so they will then need to cover the summer term again. Its shocking really, my classes are being totally abandoned

I agree as a teacher I am always very careful about what I say to parents and children. Heads do have a bit more freedom to speak out, though. But I also understand the reasons why they might choose not to.

I wonder if the MAT CEOs would consider a cut in their salaries?

I think HTs would also be wary as well.

A few years ago I remember our HT sending out a joint letter about lobbying for state funding but it got nowhere.

It sickens me the actual state of public services.

I understand it’s a balance. I feel the expectations of parents and what schools are expected to provide is increasing but HTs are between a rock and a hard place.

Hugely concerned by further austerity measures. Even if a Labour government was to come in, where would they get the money?

Fundraising measures by PTAs etc and commercial enterprises (eg wraparound) will not produce enough funding.

I work in the finance office of a secondary school (currently a SAT but won't be long until we're swallowed up by a MAT) and for the last few weeks I've had a steady stream of emails from suppliers about their prices going up.

We rent out everything. Swimming pool, gym, minibus, auditorium etc and it's literally a drop in the ocean.

The amount of PP students is rising every year, the money is being spent on absolute basics that traditionally were supplied by parents but they just can't afford it anymore.

I'm looking to get out. I work year round but can't survive on my pay anymore,

I feel like describing the situation too much might mean someone would recognise the school, but the long and the short of it is that it didn't really work, particularly if e.g. the tutor was off sick.

Luckily, there was never a really serious problem- but there definitely could have been. There absolutely would have been students who skived, and neither the school or parents knew about it. And our absence including persistent absence went up.

I work 0.8 but am occasionally asked last minute to step in to teach on my day off as short notice supply is hard to find in my city. Mostly, I don't put in a claim for my extra days as I know we're that skint. We've cut everything we can cut. Mixed classes and reduced TA support (I teach Y6 and have no support all week; this is the year of SATs!). Subscriptions, interventions, bought in support - all gone.
ECTs in posts where possible but little support for them as no release time available (as cover is too expensive), either for them or school based mentor.

We absolutely do not ask for parental contributions; we serve a very deprived area with a large refugee community. We're running on fumes and good will, but my lord, it's wearing thin.

Salaries for CEOs are high, but the sums we are talking about in school budgets are higher.

In the guardian article I linked, a MAT CEO talks about how energy bills have increased by about £60,000. Say he's on the average salary for a CEO- about £150,000. Even if he halved that salary, he'd pay the energy bill increases for 1.5 schools within his trust...

To be clear, I am in no way saying CEO salaries are justified, or that MAT CEOs are a good thing, but it's not the sole solution to the problem.

I understand ☺️

I'm in school finance in a school that is usually in a good financial position.

Our utility costs are astronomical along with the unfunded pay increases this will strip our reserves. I also run our Lettings business which generates a good income, we hire many of the school's facilities along with our pool which is fully booked. However when you offset the costs of this, gas/electrics, staffing costs, maintaining an old pool costs a fortune, it's not as profitable as you might think.

Our basics have all increased in price, our catering suppliers have all increased their costs, paper has gone up an incredible amount, at one point in the summer term I was being quoted an 80% increase for a ream of paper. This also affected all the exercise book ordering for the new year. It just goes on and on it's dire and bloody stressful to try to manage too.

Well, this is the thing, isn't it? Most secondary schools provide some kind of MH support in house now, because CAMHS has long waiting lists, and can only really help those in crisis. But this requires staff, and funds to run. If you say the purpose of a school is solely education, these services get cut, but early intervention is really important for a lot of teens, and no-one else is providing it. Lots of schools provide help to students who don't quite meet the threshold for SS intervention, but who's families aren't quite managing at times.

I do think the expectations of parents around nice to have extra-curriculars may have to be managed, though. Or parents may have to make a financial contribution to e.g. art club, science club, cooking club etc.

As to where the money comes from:

1. If a way was found to bring down energy bills, this would help a lot- this is one of the biggest cost increases schools are facing. Other countries do seem to be facing less of a hike.

2. Stabilising the economy and bringing down inflation would also help reduce costs in terms of resources. It would also mean there would be less pressure in terms of pay rises etc.

3. In terms of finding extra funding, I am pretty sure there would be ways e.g. looking at tax avoidance, increasing things like capital gains tax, maybe taxing second homes etc more heavily. I do think we have to find a way to give schools and the NHS more money, as they simply won't survive more cuts.

Ultimately, if parents want decent state education, they will have to pay for it- not via fundraising, but via tax. I do believe good quality state education benefits society as a whole.

I’m on SLT in a secondary school and it’s pretty worrying right now.

We haven’t replaced key pastoral staff - Deputy SENCO, mental health manager, mentoring lead, sixth form pastoral support manager - when staff have left over the past year. The work is done by other staff members or just doesn’t get done. We have also cut TA numbers by half since pre-lockdown.

Every school in our London borough has reported that they will be in deficit by the next financial year.

We are a good school with a long history of robust financial management, good Ofsted inspections, good results…and frankly I am worried that it is all going to shit and we are heading towards not being able to keep our kids safe, let alone provide them with a quality education. God knows how truly struggling schools are coping.

Are you saying you effectively provide cover for free? That's insanely generous of you, and I can't imagine many other people would do it. What happens if you leave the school and they employ someone else who (understandably) isn't willing or able to work on that day off for free?

We're providing so much of the classes equipment ourselves. I don't get paid much at all, but my own money has to go into equipping the classroom. Our kids need feeding first thing, some of them have not had breakfast at home and don't have that as an option. But if we burn through our cereal bread before the end of the week, it's down to us to get more. Obviously we don't have to, but what's the alternative? Hungry students who can't learn.

All the toys, games and spare clothes have been bought or donated by the classroom staff. Again what's the alternative? A bare class with nothing to do between work? Children sat in wet clothes while we wait for a parent to come from work to drop off replacements? And that's if they can even leave. It's awful.

The problem isnt the salary of MAT CEOs
The problem is chronic underfunding for 12 years, a pandemic, Brexit , a war in Ukraine, growing SEND and a staffing shortage.

Well, yes, that was sort of my point. Although- I do think dividing LAs into smaller MATs is perhaps part of the problem- it means less economies of scale. If every MAT is paying their own HR and payroll etc, then savings could be made by returning these functions to LAs.

I would say the staffing shortage is due, in part, to the lack of funding, and the low salaries, though.

I think this is increasingly becoming the case in a lot of schools, and it is a real problem- because what happens when a teacher simply can't afford to do this? E.G. An ECT with high rent and maybe a bit of debt, or a single parent who's paying out childcare etc.

Or what happens if a class ends up with e.g. long term supply? I can't see many supply teachers shelling out for this sort of thing?

I think education staff have been doing a lot to paper over the cracks for a long time- I know I've bought resources for classes before as well! But as our own costs go up, it becomes increasingly unaffordable!

It's not good. Our small village primary school is so low on money we're currently searching for a federation or academy trust. Even then we're still looking at maybe changing class structure to combining even more year groups. I work 0.6 and on UPS and I feel at risk as I'm so expensive, despite being told our jobs are safe. To be honest I'm considering leaving because I'm overworked and underpaid for what I do frankly and I don't see it improving any time soon.
I really feel for our children. My own daughter is 3 and I'm already worried for her education.

FWIW, I think most schools won't make redundancies in terms of teaching staff

My school has already, in previous years of this government, made redundancies in terms of teaching staff. We've cut courses at GCSE and A-level, shared teaching staff with other schools in the MAT (who have to travel between schools in their break and lunchtimes) and increased class sizes at A-level. We lost any TA that wasn't a funded 1-1 ages ago. This year we have cut teachers in some subjects, including core subjects and now have much bigger class sizes.

And my classroom is cold. We haven't switched the heating on yet, and when we do, it'll only be on in the morning.

That's before the unfunded pay rises, energy price rises and inflation really start to bite.

It's not just Brexit or the war, it's this fucking endless Tory government and their ongoing project to run public services into the ground.

But if it’s inflation, war, overall rising cost of producing materials, rising cost of energy. The need for higher salaries, where would a Labour government get the money from?

They are on daft money but it won't dent the deficits of the MATs so it would purely be for the optics.

My dd2's school have an Amazon Wishlist which parents are invited to buy things from for the teachers to use in their classrooms ie. to benefit the children.

We also have a voluntary contribution of £10 per child per term to pay. Cooking is at extra cost. As is swimming. As is Arts/DT week. They pretty much make parents pay for everything.

I think more schools will have to start doing that, if they don't already. Not that it will be enough still 😐