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?

Why aren't schools being honest and asking parents to contribute ahead of term? DS's school runs trip etc from the PTA (donations, sponsored events etc), I'm sure many parents would be happy to contribute say a minimum of 1k a year in an average primary that's nearly 250k (likely more as parents one up each other) in a secondary your looking at over a million. You could agree it can come off before tax so it works out at around £400 a parent. Even if you made it a mandatory tax whilst you kids are at school it would be more palatable to the tax payer as you would only being paying it whilst your kids are at school.

@sleepyscientist are you talking from a place of privilege, many parents can’t afford £1k.

Because our parents can't even afford food and clothes, let alone £1000 a year. We have over 30% of our children on income based free school meals ( less than £7400 a year) . How can we ask them to pay ?

@sleepyscientist most of the children at my DDs state Primary school were on free school meals most parents struggled to shell out £30 for a school trip let alone £1000 a year.

I'm sure many parents would be happy to contribute say a minimum of 1k a year in an average primary that's nearly 250k (likely more as parents one up each other) in a secondary your looking at over a million

You’re utterly deluded if you think this.

1. So many people can't afford this for even 1 let alone 2 or 3 children every year.

1. You assume people are paying tax and not living off benefits or earning too little to be able to access tax free allowances.

1. If you solve the problem of low income families by exempting them, you create division where some £1k a year parents resent subsidising less privileged families.

1. This is not how our system works. Education is funded by Government and equally provided, free at the point of access for all. Mess with that at your peril.

Oh. And people can't afford it. I think I mentioned that, but it bears repeating.

And in the real world schools are setting up food banks for struggling parents and trying to deal with the effects of ever-increasing child poverty.

.... and in the real world.

We have a food bank in our school. It's used more and more. We give free porridge in the mornings as many cannot afford a breakfast.

Someone I know in another school told me staff are supplementing lunches as parents can't afford to.

I'm in an affluent area but this is what is happening in schools !! Please wake up.

Is this a joke? Seriously, about half of our children are pupil premium and those that aren’t are only just above the line to qualify. I’m a teacher and I’d struggle on my salary to find an extra 1,000 a year. Where on earth do you think the vast majority of parents would find this?

I’d love to know what world some people live in. Many of our teachers are only doing one of the strike days next week as they can’t afford to drop two days of pay. I very idea that average people would hand over £1k to school is madness.

Once I had a lovely parent who paid double for every school trip. She said it was to cover anyone else who couldn’t afford it.

@Baconisdelicious

Clearly it’s not ideal but if savings have to made, catering is an area I would look at. I understand there are currently 8 catering staff and this will be reducing to 2 after the changes.

An example given was scrambled egg- currently this is made from scratch but will now come in powdered form that can be stuck in the microwave. Pasta dishes will all be microwaved.

Yes, normal. We are losing all TAs, half office staff and reducing lunchtimes as not enough midday staff.

We have cancelled a trip for next week as no support staff available and only one parent volunteered.

🤣🤣🤣My mind is blown by this comment. We struggle to get all parents to pay for a local school trip. I’ve made 5 historical costumes for kids this term who couldn’t /wouldn’t make or buy one. A minimum of £1000 a year is hysterical. I’m a teacher and I couldn’t afford it. Especially with 3 kids.

@sleepyscientist Lets assume for a second people can afford this and run with your idea. The trouble is, the government would very quickly abuse this generosity. You wouldn't be giving 1k a year. It'll end up £1.5k then £2k etc.
This is exactly what's been happening the last 10 years. Slowly the money has been chipped away, reserves used, glue sticks changed, trips subsidised by teachers, TAs gone, teachers gone. Let's imagine we can all just give £1k. You really think that'll be all? You really believe that's where it'll stop?

I can imagine that they'll take away 1k funding per pupil for every parent who pays this into the system via some wage system or whatever.

It won't improve funding. It'll benefit their mates somehow and somewhere.

It certainly won't benefit our children.

Our school could fund trips to a certain extent through the PTA.

What they will struggle with if one or two staff leave and are not replaced is having sufficient staff to run the trip

Economics also mean it's harder for people to move to the area without both parents working. That means there's far less parents available to volunteer to help run the trips too. This is particularly true with the younger kids.

I suspect it might hit a head next year.

And yeah I'd agree with the fact that many parents - affluent middle class parents - would struggle with £1000 per family (never mind per child) given that some are starting to struggle with uniform etc.

I was speaking with someone last night. She's on a two year fixed mortgage. She's looking at how much it may increase to if rates don't drop soon. She thinks it's about £700 per month. She has no idea where she'd find that from. She was talking about how they would seriously have to consider moving again.

The interest rates really are hitting well off types as well as poorer people in a way that's invisible.

I have friends who are completely oblivious to this. The thing they all have in common is they are 5 to 10 years older and are close to paying off their (much smaller) mortgages because they bought a while ago. Anyone who isn't close to that is screwed.

Even if you made it a mandatory tax whilst you kids are at school it would be more palatable to the tax payer as you would only being paying it whilst your kids are at school.

at which point I’d say ‚sod it‘ and either homeschool or suck up the expense of private. One the government brings in a tax, it never leaves. That’s not remotely palatable.

also, the whole of society pays for schools. We can’t penalise people for having kids a we’ve a massive birthgap as it is. For the economic to functioned need people to have babies who society invests in so they can be useful, not to be penalised for it.

I overpay school trips already and I volunteer where possible. But that’s through choice. Once it’s imposed by the state I would be significantly reassessing whether it was worth it to me.

So in a school where the huge majority are pupil premium as their parents don’t work - what then?

I’d argue it’s the middle who are worse off by a long way. No top - ups or help. No RPI benefit rises. They are having to find all of this out of nowhere on top of the highest tax burden ever. People at either end are quite well insulated from the crisis unfolding (even if it doesn’t feel like it). The issue is here, it’s the middle who fund education through tax and they can’t afford it as is. It then goes full circle into how sustainable everything is with nearly 50% of adults not paying tax. It’s all a mess.

The thing us, we can’t solve schools in isolation. For mainstream schools to work properly, we need:

• Social services to be fully funded and working smoothly to provide family support
• Decent housing and adequate nutrition to be affordable and available
• Mental health services to be fully funded and working properly
• Physical health services ditto, including drug and alcohol support services
• SEN provision - from diagnosis to advice; from effective interventions to fully funded and available Special School places - to be fully funded and working smoothly
• Policing, including effective youth outreach, to be fully funded and working smoothly

Without all this, schools are just plugging the gaps that would previously gave been dealt with elsewhere and gave precious little money or time for their core purpose of education.

@cantkeepawayforever Yup. There are kids at my school who have been rejected from MH services for being too high risk. No guidance for schools. Social services rejecting referrals that would be urgent assessments just 2 years ago.

I have had children rejected from Special Schools and left in mainstream because their needs were too great to be met in a Special School……

Yup! My DD is moving to a special school in Sept. She barely made it in and they're worried she won't cope academically. She's currently in a large comp...