How are the school budget cuts affecting your school?

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Either as a parent or teacher (or other member of staff in a school)?

Have the cuts had a tangible impact yet? What do you think will happen over the next few years?

I have a terrible feeling we are walking right into a crisis in education in this country ...

Ours is doing well I assume as the head is drawing a salary of 80k. Head is clearly saving money by only allowing my dc with an ehcp into school for a couple of hours a day. Despite dc legally being of school age.

I feel for the schools as budgets seem tight but that said ours is fundraising for a new art room which is nice to have but obviously if other areas were struggling it wouldn’t be the first thing you’d spend on.

So if I were to donate some classroom resources to my kids’ primary school, what would I buy? (I’d have to do it anonymously for ridiculous toxic inlaw reasons).

Pritt sticks? Whiteboard markers? What else?

There was talk of redundancies, but we're avoiding them this year due to not replacing a TA. Also, 2 teachers are retiring but others who have had time out of class due to being SMT/SenCo etc are in their classes a lot more, if not full time. People going on maternity leave are being covered by NQTs who are cheap and cheerful. And our PPA has been covered by HLTA's/level 2 TAs for years now already.

All headteachers in the authority got together and created a letter which went out to all parents and it made the papers. THe county found some 'extra' money to put into school funds, but not much and no promise for next year.

I have a budget of a couple of hundred pounds at the start of the year for my class. It seems great, but it's remarkable how far it doesn't stretch. Pencils, glue sticks, whiteboard markers, card for crafts, post its, coloured pencils, paper for displays etc all used to be bought on top of the class budget but now we have to include it.

And I'm aware that I'm lucky to have a budget of any kind and that in some schools I wouldn't have it.

At one point in my school (many years ago- pre ppa days) I was paying for my own borders and coloured paper to be able to put up displays as well as buying all pencils/felts/glue for my class to use as there wasn't the money. The head teacher paid for the copy paper from his own pocket for a time too.

So we've been in dire straits before, and have been through redundancies too, which I'm always worried about.

Janice plain paper for children to draw on, felt tips, blu tac, boxes of tissues are all things I always want more of, as well as your suggestions.

When dgs had his induction day last July for Reception, the class of 30 had 2 TA's so he should have been in a group of 10 for phonics etc. However, within the first half-term 1 TA was moved higher up the school and he is in a group of 18 for phonics. Nursery also only have 1 TA.

I think the TA's are being used to cover a lot, as there are 3 in Nursery at the moment and I haven't seen the Nursery teacher since first week of summer term. Reception parents have to walk through the Nursery shared area to take their dc into Reception and the Nursery TA stands at the door to handout entry passes. In last few weeks there has been a number of different TA's on the door and the usual TA is always in the classroom with the nursery children together with a TA who usually works in a higher class. Dgs said today that he won't be seeing much of his class teacher as she will be in other classes and the old TA will be in his class, the way he phrased it sounded like a direct quote. Nothing has been said about this by the school.

They got rid of all the midday supervisors (or maybe nearly all of them, there was a long list of names of staff who were leaving on the letter that was sent home but I don't know how many there were in the first place). I think TAs now supervise lunch time, but they also announced several TAs they were getting rid of in the same letter. The Learning Mentor and a couple of other members of staff were also listed as leaving due to the school's funding cuts. This has been since Easter. I assume that there are other issues and reductions in resources, like teachers describe above, that parents have not been informed of. 🙁

Our primary school has half the number of TAs it had 2 years ago, if that, and hours still being cut. Regularly running out of classroom supplies and not being able to replace them for months. Copy paper tightly monitored and doled out. TAs provide all cover, even if it leaves others needing help without, less support elsewhere, etc

Miserable having to pretty much demand parents pay for trips and extras or we can't run them. Contributions can't be 'voluntary' ... there really isn't any money.

Although the government threw money at PE provision ... yes, it's nice to have such things, but we don't have enough people to actually help children learn the other 90% of the time, and a huge increase in children with SEN and behavioural issues to support makes it even harder.

I don't think most parents have a clue about how much trouble state schools are in financially in some areas ...

We've been told that TAs are being made redundant and no child will have a 1:1 regardless of what it says on their EHCP. They will get creative with how the EHCP is worded and evidence it somehow through boxing clever with groups in nuture areas with 1TA. Ds7 has undiagnosed Sen and waiting for an EHCP and is currently only allowed at school for 1hour a day. A TA who is leaving said he and similar other children will most likely get permanently excluded because the school can't afford to support them. They are the most supportive of Sen school in the area so if they are washing their hands of Sen children then there's no hope left for them.

The Academy system has destroyed financial oversight and accountability.

Too many SLT's are lining their own pockets
To many Governors and sponsors are lining their own pockets
they use tame accountants to sign off the books as Eric Pickles abolished the Audit Commission

but even in good schools
its to the bone
non exam subjects are dead
outreach is dead
curriculum school trips are dead
visitors who add value are gone

austerity is damaging the next two generations
for what

I keep hearing all this stuff, but honestly? Primary school, Cheshire, had a cut of almost £300 per pupil - haven’t really noticed any difference whatsoever! Hasn’t stopped the school having a major decorative overhaul, anyway!

I'm a school governor. We're cutting down on nearly everything. There is less money for resources and we're using TAs to cover classes instead of paying for supply. Thankfully the TAs are willing and extremely capable but it feels a bit exploitative. There is no money for the nice to have stuff. Every last penny is scrutinised.

Despite all that, we're running a deficit budget and eating into our reserves at an alarming rate. It's the only way we can afford to pay for the essentials. We can keep going for another two years like this, because we have the reserves that have been built up in previous years. When those funds run out, we'll be truly stuffed, but we're clinging on to the hope that other schools are in much worse situations than we are, so something will eventually have to change in order to keep them open.

puffy our school which is in a huge deficit was fitted out with some new kitchen equipment but it was done for free by a local supplier in exchange for advertising in the school newsletter and an official 'opening' photo to go in the local newspaper.

I’m sure it must have affected us, but with 2 kids in the school I can’t really see any difference, mistofelles.. we aren’t talking kitchen supplies here, it’s tablets in reception for signing in, rejigging of internal walls, skylights being pout in reception etc. Maybe it was funded by a grant, I don’t know... can’t see a difference in the teaching levels either. However, we are only a small school.

And the government is wondering why there is such a rise in home education, especially for children with SEN.

When I said kitchen we got a cooker, fridge, microwave etc but yes that does seem like extensive work, it must be a grant of they've lost that much per pupil. It's good that you haven't seen a drop in teaching levels, small schools often struggle more than larger ones.

I'm in Scotland where it's generally agreed things aren't quite as bad as in England, but it's bad enough. Our school can't replace playground toys or other equipment as it goes missing so the kids have nothing to do outside and misbehave out of boredom. The LA has recently voted to cut 20% of TA jobs and places in special schools have been cut too, which means we have lots of children with severe additional needs coming in to mainstream and no extra support for them which impacts everyone's learning, not least the children themselves who are moving from a very supported environment to one where they're totally expected to fend for themselves. It makes me so angry.

Staff redundancies and closure of non-core departments as a result. Huge mixed ability GCSE groups for next year. Staff morale at an all time low.

No tech or food tech. Those rooms are now being used for an extra class of students in each year group.

puffy,
the reason for the ability to spend money on the building etc is almost certainly because each school gets an annual grant called the devolved formula capital. This is based on school numbers and has to be spent within 3 years. There is also minimum level which has to be spent on capital projects (though it can include ICT), so decorative improvements would very much suggest that is where the funding has come from.

Kids in secondary school - non-specialist teachers taking GCSE lessons or inadequate cover (warm body to supervise the class rather than teach); non-core subjects being phased out; extra-curricular sports are non-existent or dependent on volunteer parents

PTA manages to raise several £thousand a year, but it's hard work. School begs asks for voluntary contributions, but few parents contribute apparently.

We've had to pay for copies of all past papers and homework work books. Technically the DC are completing them out of school, but they get a detention if they haven't completed them and handed them in on time, so it is definitely a compulsory purchase.

God this is so depressing.

We are having to buy books now if we want them to have access to a copy. Think it won’t be long until we are buying stationary too. Reckon voluntary contributions are probably on the cards too.