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 don't think it sounds ridiculous at all, really. Or at least, I recognise the feeling of breaking down over something that seems small and unimportant, but is just the final straw. And often it happens when you're having a tough day and in a rush because you've been doing cover, or dealing with something else, and you just need to get something done, but the printer isn't working, or you can't find the stapler etc.

My understanding is that it's getting increasingly difficult to recruit heads at the moment- it's a difficult job at the best of times, and with budgets stretched to the absolute limit and beyond, it's even harder.

That’s a good thing though? In a sense there are too many schools for the number of children so this is natural consolidation.

@funtycucker, wraparound care is charged at higher rate than the cost of room, electricity, snacks and staff overheads.

By the time government get round to doing something about it and boost the funding, they will find a large chunk of the staff have exited and gone to work elsewhere. It will be (and already is) a crisis of funding that is driving out experienced staff. They leave, not wholly or even partly because of poor pay (although that certainly doesn’t attract people in) but because working with the lack of funds for resources, and the burden in remaining staff due to the impossibility if recruiting, makes the job impossible.

So by the time the government really does look at this, they will also be looking at a very long term issue of boosting the supply of qualified teachers….and it will take years to sort that out, after years of people exiting.

Sorry, but it’s hard to see a solution coming soon, or a system that can be properly better within the school lifetime of any children who are currently in Reception. It sounds dramatic, but that’s how bad and long term the problems are.

Definitely agree the funding should come from the government.

In my previous undersubscribed primary school, 2 classes of under 20 children each have had to be combined this year, with one teacher for about 36 kids. The other teacher was moved to a different school, this saving a salary there.

At my dd1's school, they have decided to increase their PAN from September as more bums on seats means more funding. Which in turn means bigger class sizes all round.

Exactly. PTAs and parental contributions also vary wildly depending on the area the school is in.
Our catchment covers areas with huge rural poverty. While I'm sure our parents would love to have the time and money to support the school they simply don't.

Well, it depends, doesn't it? For the children who attend these schools, who may well be split up between multiple schools, it may not be a good thing. They'll be unsettled, lose friendships, face longer commutes etc.

For schools who have to take on additional students they don't really have room for, it's not ideal, either. If all your class sizes go from, say 30, to 33, that's quite difficult.

And say, in 5 years or so, the birth rate has increased, or lots of families have moved into the area- well, those schools are permanently lost, and can't just reopen, so you end up cramming more and more children into a smaller building, and it's not ideal for anyone.

10% of schools in my LA have not been able to recruit a HT for this term.
And TBH I certainly wouldn't become a HT in this current climate.

I agree that it's the little things that break people - we had a small order of stationery items delivered last week - staff descended like vultures as it was doled out.
I'd love to be able to order everything they want and need but I can't.

Larger class sizes is going to be the immediate solution, staff will be cut. But then as PP has said, teachers will leave due to exhaustion and MH. Less experienced and cheaper staff will be recruited.

In turn the quality of education in England will go down, a vicious circle. The people who can afford a private education will do exactly that. Exacerbating the gap between rich and poor. A Tory dream.

@Paris2023 I think that's a bit simplistic

www.tes.com/magazine/analysis/general/falling-birth-rate-population-crisis-about-hit-schools

@caringcarer we have high proportion of PP in our school. We’re currently working out how to reopen up the food bank for our families that we ran during lockdown. Our families cannot afford to be ‘fundraising’/donating any money to our school. Let alone £2k per term and neither should they have to if schools were funded properly.

Larger class sizes is going to be the immediate solution, staff will be cut

yes that will be a solution.

Hardworking PTAs and Parent Councils are incredible but the money they can raise vs the very real deficit in educational funding is far too wide. They’ll never fill the gaps (they can’t pay for buildings and teaching staff).

But absolutely not ideal, counter productive. I’m just trying to be realistic.

I don't think HT is a job I'd ever want, but certainly not now. 10% of schools without a HT is huge!

And it's definitely the little things that wear you down over time, or lots of small things add up into one big thing. It's the little extra tasks, as well. "Can you just do x?" is fine, but when you are already doing w,y and z as additional tasks, it may become too much.

Something does need to change very soon, we're already losing a lot of experienced staff from education, and we're not recruiting to replace them. And without the expertise of experienced staff, new staff don't get the same opportunity to develop.

The lower birth rate is starting to enter Reception. My DC’s school is highly sought-after but the reception intake is under subscribed this year for the first time in many many years. School closures are coming.

But absolutely not ideal, counter productive. I’m just trying to be realistic.

yes definitely not a good thing but inevitable

Low birth rate about to hit primary but secondary is being hit by peak birth rate.

Selling toast FFS.

That's as stupid as the suggestion on the TAs quitting for supermarket work to get people to do the job for free instead.

Thank you for this @bercan. A declining population burdening the youth of the future with an ageing population to manage. Families reluctant to have more children due to the overall expense of life and living.

Rather than per pupil funding it’s saying a per school funding as a solution but how? You could have a school with 20-25 kids per class getting the same funding as those with 30 kids.

Ultimately with birth rates declining we need less schools.

Yep, and there's a long way to go before the higher birth rate gets through primary schools, let alone secondary schools.

School closures only really make sense if people can be sure birth rates won't go up again at any point in, let's say, the next 20 years.

It also depends a lot on geography- my county is actually trying to open new schools as there are more children of school age than can be served by existing schools in some areas!

It’s bad. We’ve always had a healthy budget (420 pupil primary with high number of PP) but we’re skint this year!

This is precisely why strikes are needed.

Maybe when parents have their lives disrupted because THERE IS NO MONEY TO KEEP YOUR KIDS AT SCHOOL and start demanding the government return to funding schools like they did in 2010 will things get better.

Education is a right, not a privilege. It’s the UK, we’re supposed to be leaders in education not doing bloody bake sales so kids can get pencils 🙄

But with a 50% decline in global fertility over the last 50-70 years, this will not be reversed anytime soon.

we will inevitably have a reduced young population. An ageing population. We will have to close schools. Economic growth will stagnate.

The primary I used to work in has been using TAs to cover classes for a long time already. I was a 121 TA but ended up teaching at times. They even had TAs as class teachers in some cases.

I don't think schools can run on 'there will be fewer pupils in a decade' Paris so we're going to have to find a solution for the meantime.