School budget cuts- is this normal?

[SummerDuck]

So a letter has come out from DS’s school titled “Plans for the next academic year”. Basically due to teacher pay rises, inflation and government funding freeze, there will need to be changes in how the school operates.

The school are proposing 20 teacher redundancies with the drama and French departments closing. There will be a “reset” of catering provision with reduced staffing and a heat from frozen offer.

School trips are being “paused” while most office staff will go, with teachers picking up some of these tasks. Is this the norm bod for state schools?

I haven’t had any letters like this from either of my daughters schools neither of which have taken part in the strikes. Still the same school menus albeit very pricey these days.
My youngest has 2 school trips coming up before the summer holidays too.

If only the government understood how investing in schools infrastructure does actually

Any infrastructure tbh

Hospitals are facing the same issues as schools with unsafe buildings, sewage leaks and asbestos.

I read somewhere the other day that the cost of fixing school buildings is now three times higher than the money saved by Gove cancelling the Building Schools for the Future programme.

All this lack of investment 'because there's no money' is just a false economy.

Literally. Thames water is a great recent example.

@radiatorpipe

I don’t think you can compare NHS consultant doctors to teachers but obviously that’s a generalisation. Many doctors at consultant level were privately educated themselves and medical school has always been more prestigious than a PGCE route. They were probably from more Tory backgrounds.

I think teachers have just known for a very long time where all this was heading unfortunately and then some opted for private. (Although their lifestyles have had to suffer considerably for this sacrifice).

I think that, while schools doing a big ‘public’ exercise is still relatively rare, a comparison between subjects offered / numbers of permanent teachers / number of admin staff say 5 years ago and this September would give a very similar picture for all schools.

Some have achieved it via less public means - vacancies unfilled, subjects quietly dropped - but the net effect is tge same.

@cantkeepawayforever Yes exactly. That was kind of my point and what I noticed between now Vs when DD joined Y7 in 2019. I think it's rare to have such a huge sudden drop. There has been a consistent drop of staff, curriculum offer and overall quality of food in most schools over the last 5 years, which would probably equal to what this school is doing in one summer. I don't think most schools are having such a drastic change in just one summer though which is probably why so many parents haven't really noticed it.

It is interesting that there are more and more threads by Y5 and 6 parents who are very very worried.

Our school isn't at this level (yet). They've struggled to recruit Spanish teachers so have and to cut it, and my son says catering has gone to the dogs since September (they raised prices very minimally so they need to absorb some of the costs) so we are having to switch back to packed lunches. Other than that everything else like trips are still on...for now...

@noblegiraffe and others have done their level best to make people aware of this for a number of years. I am sure they would have loved to have been proved wrong but here we are.

@SparklingMarkling I would argue that is usually teachers from a particular background who can afford private (bar the ones who work in a private school for discount). The teachers salary alone isn't really going to be able to pay for it.

Unfortunately yes. This is increasingly becoming the norm. Unless the parent body raise considerable amounts of money, government funding is not sufficient to meet the costs of the school.

Yup. It also depends on where in the country they are. Preps in London are around £24k. Up in Lancashire it's around £11k alongside hugely lower housing costs costs but actually quite similar teacher salaries.

Fundraising for trips isn’t going to help much if you have nobody to run them. If my team was running on skeleton staff and those of us left were expected to hold things together alongside taking turns at office admin (?!) then there’s not a chance I’d be spending my free time running trips.

I don't know of any schools near me that have the luxury of making people redundant, as there is a recruitment crisis as well. But there are definitely schools not replacing or delaying replacing staff who have left to work in Aldi if they can get away with it. Hiring staff with fewer and fewer qualifications as the budgets get tighter. SLT in classrooms nearly full-time. Amazon wish lists and bring-and-buy sales to fund slightly frivolous items like flour for play dough. Understandably arsey emails about school meal debt. School trips can't happen unless it's a free venue and free travel on TFL as parents won't pay and schools can't subsidise the PP kids anymore. What's a lunch break?

Schools get about £6000 per pupil each year. They then need to pay for all their staff wages, bills, resources, maintenance, repairs etc...

If you think your gas/elec bill has gone up, think how much extra school needs to pay per year?!?!?

If a school has experienced teachers who are on the top pay bracket, then that makes a huge dent in the budget.

Most teachers not striking because our salaries aren't great, but because our salaries should be paid by the government, NOT from the school budget.

It is therefore not surprising that schools are having to take extreme measures to cut costs. We have seen our class sizes go up massively, we cannot afford to replace any equipment that gets broken, school trips are being cancelled.

And yet still lots of money in MATs to pay top dollar CEO salaries…

Really depends on size of MAT. Most aren't like this.

My partners school (Kent)
8 made redundant
20+ leaving
As things stand they do not have enough teachers to cover timetable in September.
They are 1 1/2 million in the red.
Joining up with another trust from another town.
Morale is in the toilet.
It's a shambles.

The school I’m in is 100 years old. We have £7k a year for building maintenance. The toilets don’t work but we’ve been quoted £200k a year to fix them. Because there are enough toilets in the building we won’t get any money to sort the problem. This means reception age children having to walk the entire length of the school to go to the toilet in year 6.

This is why I’m striking.

I'm a single mum with a ds at a small independent. He's in year 10. In addition to fees, we now pay text books, exam entry, trips, sports fees and music fees separately so that people can break down the fees to their individual minimums.

We have a lot of new pupils arriving from the state sector at 13 so they can do their GCSEs.

@radiatorpipe

I am in the midlands and I know a few who have gone down the private route. Our local private is around 4 grand a term. One moved to a cheaper area to release some equity and another decided to stop at one child to be able to afford it. They’re not rich people and I doubt they’ll be voting Tory. They do care about their children’s education though and obviously knew state Ed has been a shit show for quite some time.

Normal now sadly, schools are skint. I work in an area that is privy to education budgets and schools are fucked for money. They're skint anyway and they're bracing themselves for another winter of insane energy bills but no budget for them from LEAs/central government and possible teacher pay rises they've got to find the money for mid year, in their existing budgets which are already allocated.

The only answer is voting these shower of bastards out, so remember that next year (or maybe this one) when a General Election is called.

Yes, I work with a number of primary schools.

Redundancy/ restructure/reorganisation

• 3 schools - headteacher redundant with plans to share a headteacher with another school instead.
• 1 school - 17 staff (deficit in the budget) - made up of three senior leaders, 8 teachers and 6 teaching assistants. Whole school re-organisation, changes to classes in September and then again for January as the restructure completes.
• 1 school - 4 staff, 2 teachers and 2 teaching assistants.
• 1 school - 5 teaching assistants.
• 1 school - not replacing admin staff where they have left.
• 1 school - currently with two classes covered by teaching assistants as they are unable to recruit.
• 3 schools - closure. Small village schools that can’t sustain costs.
• 8 schools, cleaning and caretaking hours severely reduced; grounds maintenance contracts reduced.
• 6 schools, privatising school meals. Government funding doesn’t cover the cost of school meals. Schools are having to find £1,500 per month to cover the shortfall, as well as having to raise school meal prices.
• From a team of 6 educational psychologists, only one in post (locum), vacancies for the other 5. Preventing SEND referrals, EHCP agreements etc. stopping support for the most vulnerable.

My husband's currently teaching from a geography GCSE textbook with a chapter entitled "Will the Millennium Dome be a Success?"

Yes this is why they are striking, not for more money but all payrises to be from a central pot rather than the small budget schools get.

Most are going to be struggling next year, a local primary school have asked for £30 donations from every parent if they have it spare due to the costs.