Why do some schools face budget cuts, and some schools don't?

[liankian]

I’ve just received an email from my son’s primary school. It said the school is facing budget cuts. That they now don’t have allocated funding for library upgrade and class furniture.

Meanwhile, I asked a friend of mine. Her children are also at primary level, but it seems their school is just fine.

Actually, my friend’s school is located in a richer area and is rated as an outstanding school. While my son’s school is only rated Good.

I was wondering whether these two factors – the school’s geographical area and its ratings – have an impact on the school’s funding.
Could you pls explain?
Thank you

be only 2 miles away from a larger school

If you're talking about primary, than 2 miles is a huge distance given that primary school kids can't get themselves to school in the way that secondary pupils can.

I am a school governor for a secondary school. We have not informed the parents about the funding situations. Next year, we will have 50ish more pupils but £££,£££ less. This is because the government has put up the national insurance and pension contributions the schools have to make. These changes affect all state schools.

To make a saving of this size, the only option is to axe jobs. My guess is that in the next academic year all state schools in this country will have fewer members of staff, unless they have had a dramatic increase in pupil numbers.

What admission said 👍 (Also a ch. of govs)

We have to think creatively. Hire out the premises. Find new income streams. Build expertise within the school instead of always paying for outside training. Be really honest about what is essential and what is ideal but not essential. Prioritise what makes a difference to outcomes for children and shelve what just makes us feel good along the way.

Hire out the premises. Find new income streams. Build expertise within the school instead of always paying for outside training.

Lots of schools already do this and are yet having to find further savings. The next step is teacher redundancies, larger class sizes and reduced curriculum. This will obviously affect the education of the children but this is what is having to happen because all the other options have already been taken.

Yes all of the easy changes have been made in most schools already. We are struggling to hire an English teacher at the moment. Of any kind. The situation in schools is dire. It should be a national scandal and I'm somewhat confused that it isn't!

Donna, if your school is struggling to recruit then we're all doomed.

Agreed Donna. It should be a national scandal. I wrote to my (Tory) MP. Everyone should do it.

Varies subject to subject. No one applied for my mat cover two years ago and no one's applied for this. Many of our recent appointments have been former students that we've tracked down.

Lougle..... the funding shortfall is so big that extra income streams would have to be huge. You might be able to get a few £,£££ or even ££,£££ with stuff like hiring out the premises but my school needs £££,£££ to keep going as it is now.

Our school has been promised funding for the past 3 years for the extra classrooms it needs after taking several bulge years, guess what they aren't getting it this year either not for the foreseeable future.
The whole of our LEA is oversubscribed not just our school but because there is no cash for new classrooms the classes are being squeezed into buildings simply not built for the number of kids.
Free schools really haven't been the solution either as the only one to set up was a failing private school that converted, we're really not in the kind of area that attracts that kind of development. It's sad because I think our area is failing a whole generation of children in terms of their education.

"Hire out the premises." Have done so for years so no extra income
"Build expertise within the school instead of always paying for outside training." Ditto plus we generate income by providing training to other schools which we will lose if they take your advice.

Schools up the road have classes of 40+ due to staff cuts (no TA single teacher) meanwhile the government pour money into creating new grammar schools

I do know how hard it is. I'm doing it all. I'm not just sitting on the side line preaching it. But what choice have we got? We can't set deficit budgets so we have to make it work, somehow, unless the Government steps in and realises that they are asking the impossible. It's either that, or we hand back the keys and say we can't do it and they need to find someone who also can't can. It's a very worrying time.

But some schools have done all that you are suggesting and will still be operating a deficit. The time has come to protest not put up and shut up as we have for so long.
I've often thought that if we worked to rule a lot of parents would be shocked. For example many assume we're paid for extracurricular drama and sports fixtures. However, I also know I'm not prepared to let the children suffer. I didn't strike last time I could have as year 7 were putting on a play that evening.
Something is going to give and soon. When one of the best schools in the country is struggling to recruit there's a serious problem

That's true, but what do you suggest we do? As a Chair of Governors, I have to run the school without a deficit budget. No matter how I feel about the way the Government is handling things, that is the duty I share with the other governors and the SLT of my school. So regardless of how unfair it is, how awful the decisions and choices we have to make are, those choices have to be made. That might be bigger class sizes, less LSAs, less additional support, less ELSA, etc., which will all undoubtedly have an impact on the children, sadly. The alternative is teacher redundancies, which nobody wants to see.

If someone has a better solution (other than the Government waking up and realise that they are choking the education system and need to give schools more money) I'm all ears.

There are schools out there which are having to make teachers redundant, even though they've implemented the suggestions, culled support staff and cut anything else that can be cut.

I think it's possible that coming on a thread and suggesting that schools hire out their premises is going to give a false impression to parents reading that perhaps the problem is with schools not being imaginative enough, rather than there genuinely not being enough money in the budget to run a school. And as Donna points out, not enough teachers to run schools either.

We need to make sure everyone knows how bad it is. It should be in the press every day. Where are the bloody unions? Even on here people don't grasp how bad it actually is. The physical state of my school is shocking. The lack of resources is depressing and I work in one of the better funded departments. Professional development has all but disappeared. I'd just got to the doing a research project part of the PTI programme but we can't afford membership anymore. Developing subject knowledge has fallen away. These are important things. Not extras.
We're in a better state than most and can still run niche A Levels. My old school (girls grammar) has already lost Tech and will be losing Music (at GCSE too). Their loss is our gain when they hit sixth form. Our head is off the opinion we keep these expensive subject as they help attract the best candidates. He's not wrong.

Dds secondary school have just made 15 teachers redundant. Some classes are being merged so for instance she's now taught RE (year 11 full gcse) in a class of 60 kids.

They've drastically cut a level options and only announced that last week which is a bit late for those in year 11 who have picked their options. With a bit more notice they would have had chance to apply to other sixth forms.

They have PE teachers teaching geography and art teachers teaching French.

I've written to my Tory mp spelling out what the cuts mean and just got a weasel letter back saying that overall it would be a fairer system and most schools would see an increase in funding. Didn't address any of my specific concerns or issues.

I agree CPD has disappeared - it's gone from people looking through course brochures and putting in for what they fancied and generally getting it (within reason), to looking and applying hopefully and sometimes getting it, to having to make sure your CPD needs were in your PM paperwork to get it, to looking at the brochures and then trying to provide it in house, to nobody ever looking in CPD brochures ever and never asking for anything because the answer is always no. This over 13 years, nice schools, generally good to staff, leafy semi rural locations...no staff training. At all, pretty much.

Yes CPD has definitely gone here too, we will be making yet more people redundant this summer, talented experienced staff who struggle to find jobs elsewhere because they are simply too expensive to hire. I know this as I've phoned schools advertising jobs as MPS if they would consider UPS and the answer is no. They won't even offer interviews to current UPS staff and pay them less as they feel they will leave as soon as a UPS job comes up.

I've been on funding marches, written to our MP and yet people are more concerned about the fact that George Osborne has 6 jobs....

Our school asks parents for donations to the school trust by direct debit each month to support the school. Nearly everyone pays from £5 -£50 per month/child depending what they can afford. It means the facilities are great, new library etc and the children get a lot of "extra" things that enhances their education.

A parent - led campaign against these cuts is gaining momentum. I attended a local meeting this week with hundreds of concerned parents and teachers. It was covered in some depth by the press. We can get this government to change its mind! If enough parents protest they will have to take notice. I am not sure if I am allowed to link to the campaign, but if you search fair funding for all schools and your local authority, you should find a protest group.

PossumInAPearTree, if the school are making 15 teachers redundant, then that means that they are going to be saving £450,000 a year minus the redundancy costs, possibly more.

If they are also making changes to courses they will and will not run then, even the LAs like Cheshire East will have not seen cuts this year that are that high. In the future yes potentially but not this year. I would suggest that the school has not been doing what they needed to do a few years ago and save funds and that these cuts are because the school was already in a deficit situation.

Given that the official figure for the number of academies that are already in deficit is over 50%, that actually says that far to many schools and governing boards have simply not managed their finances properly over the last few years and are now being found out when the going gets a bit tough.

Glitter - I think most schools (certainly secondary) do that already too. My own secondary did it in the 90s. For any new capital build project the school has to raise a proportion of the funds themselves. This is relatively easy for schools such as mine (we have a couple of recent projects) as we have many affluent old students that we can grovel to. That shouldn't be necessary for any school though. Funding schools properly is an investment in the future and good for the nation as a whole. Why do the Tories not understand this!

admission do you think that schools which have been properly financially managed would not be seeing staff redundancies? Because that wouldn't be my experience.