School sounding cuts

[mrz]

Will your child's school face cuts to budget?http://www.schoolcuts.org.uk/#/

Opening new schools in areas that don't need them would seem to be an obvious waste of money

If they are not needed they will fail, if they are successful they will flourish. Its a much better use of money than funding failing schools that parents refuse to send their children to. I can never find financial data on how much is wasted keeping failing schools open that no one wants to use. Why is that.

Bus

Indeed, but the solution to that would be giving LAs the money to open schools where needed and telling the Free School chancers to jog on.

Christ supper you think the country is so short of cash it can't afford to pay teachers properly and that's fine, but also it's ok to spend millions opening up schools because fuckit, why not, they could be good? And in the meantime kids in black holes don't even have a school?

That website is scary...according to it the school I work in will need to make 12 teachers redundant. How we would maintain outstanding in a deprived area with 12 less teachers you tell me...

The school where I work has already lost one teacher and has cut right back on support staff. I don't know what will happen if we have to face further cuts to budget.

DC is a teacher in a shortage subject. Has a good Masters in their subject and is a born teacher. The week after graduation from university , DC was signing up to yet more student debt in order to do PGCE whilst uni friend with a lower class degree started work on a supermarket graduate programme, earning almost twice as much as DC, as well as being given a company car. So much for trying to attract the best candidates into teaching.

I don't think there is a shortage of people wanting to be MP
I have never met anyone who ever wants to be an MP, and anytime I ask its akin to being a child molester (a metaphor). So yes I think there is a shortage of good people wanting to be an MP. And if we had better people running the country we would get a better reallocation of resources for everyone.

My experience is that head teachers earn double what an MP does...

Things are pretty bad in education at the moment, especially for academies not owned by academy chains. My school is currently not replacing staff that leave in non-core areas: Music, drama, MFL, RS, ICT. Basically, everything not English and Maths is cut to the bone. Staff are demoralised and it is now impossible to find full time, competent English and Maths teachers.
It also means that they can't afford repairs to the building so I teach in a classroom that is freezing in the winter and boiling in the summer- to the point where students pass out.
The reality is that real terms funding cuts are dragging down the quality of schooling- even in the nice, middle class area I work in.

I have never met anyone who ever wants to be an MP

Gosh, that must mean there's a dire shortage. No, wait, there's always a bunch of people on the ballot paper and on selection lists.

Supper With the greatest respect, you are talking out of your bottom. Can I ask what experience you have of the current education system?

I can see that teachers want more money but I just don't think the country can afford it right now.

I don't want more money. I think I get paid fine for the job I do. It's not about the money. I just wish that I didn't have to buy resources out of my own pocket.

noblegiraffe, "you think the country is so short of cash it can't afford to pay teachers properly"

No no no, that is not what I think, the complete opposite. I think the country is so short of cash it cant pay everyone what they want. You pay teachers more, then the tube drivers (for example) want more and go on strike for a rise, its NOT THAT SIMPLE.

FYI our country is in debt. Who is supposed to pay it back?

But it can afford to waste £3 million on each failed free school?

It can afford to waste millions on grammar schools that pretty much every educational professional in the country thinks are a bad idea?

noblegiraffe, I never said their was a shortage of MPs I said I have never met anyone who wants to be one. Which leads me to think it is not an inspirational job for clever people.

Gosh, MN is a very hostile place for people who have an opinion. Am I supposed to be a good house wife and agree with everything the 'ruling class' proclaims?

Where I work we have had no pay rise and our teaching hours per week have gone up from 4.5 blocks to 5 blocks per week. All to cover staff who have retired/left teaching etc that we can't afford to replace.

mrz, But it can afford to waste £3 million on each failed free school?

If you can supply the data than I will accept your argument. How much do failing schools cost the country verses failing free schools?

In my anecdotal experience failing state schools cost several million a year for decades. Its good to see failing free schools being closed down promptly and I would say they save the state a lot of money.

What's the solution with a failing state school then?

What is your experience Supper?

supper- free schools should not have been opened in the first place if there was no shortage of school places in their area, failing or not.

And an MP is not responsible for people's lives and futures in the way an HT is. An HT should be paid more than an MP in the cases of large schools. MPs are now on £75k p.a., so there are lots of HTs paid less than them.

Here's some solid info on pay for heads

www.teachingtimes.com/articles/heads-salaries.htm

My post obviously touched a few nerves. I do not begrudge any teacher the money they are paid because there is not a chance that I could do their job.
However as Chair of Governors of a school the figure that this site is quoting for the funding the school is supposed to loose is just plain wrong. We will get the same funding in terms of £ in 2017-18 that we got in 2016-17. Actually we will get more as we have had an increase in pupil numbers. After that date it will very much depend on what the government comes up with as a national funding formula as to where as a school we find ourselves.
Yes costs will go up in terms of resources and teacher's salaries (1% as an inflation rise and for those on the main scale a potential rise up the scale, which is approximately £2000 per scale point). Yes I know in theory scale rises do not exist now but the reality is that in most schools they still do. The fact is that teachers have had salary increases when many over the last 5 years have not seen rises.
Everybody has to realise that times are changing and expecting pay rises and school funding increases in real price terms is not going to happen unless the government have a very big change in policy (which I accept is always possible based on past performance).

But the increased pension and NI costs mean a substantial real terms cut for schools - referred to here, for instance
www.gloucestershire.gov.uk/schoolsnet/CHttpHandler.ashx?id=60935&p=0

Lots of info and graphs here

schoolsweek.co.uk/its-staff-that-will-have-to-be-cut-next/

TBH, I am no longer worried about the quality of teachers that we get, I am worried that we can't get teachers at all.