school finances situation in your child’s school.

[kafkesque]

Letter received today:

Updating you about school finances
I am sure you will have heard through news and topical radio/television programmes about the crises in school funding and I felt it important to update you about the situation in your child’s school.
Our school is also suffering financially and for a number of reasons. For example, the recent staff pay rises are not centrally funded, meaning we need to find thousands of pounds from this year’s budget. On the horizon, employer’s pension contributions will increase from 14% to 50% by September 2020, resulting in £140,000 to be found (annually) from our school budget. Some centrally funded support for September 2019 is promised, though not from this point onwards.
Schools are now charged for services that used to be free at the point of access. In addition, the needs of our pupils placed at The MSE continue to increase and as such, so do our costs for relevant resources (e.g. reading books, IT equipment and programmes as well as staffing and related training costs.) However, per-pupil funding levels are not keeping pace with the significant extra demands on the school. We know this funding argument is ‘won’ though have no confirmation as to whether any additional finances to support us will actually materialise.
On our doorstep, the cuts to other community services leaves vacuums, for which we find ourselves undertaking crucial pastoral work that would not otherwise be provided for our families.
If only the ‘little extras’ money promised in November’s budget could be for ‘extras’. If we cannot fundraise to meet such additional costs, we will have to make savings in other areas. Fundraising has been very successful at school, but as you can imagine, so many grants, trusts, company and private donors, do not want to spend money on school essentials like staffing, replacing toilets or worn-out flooring.
I am sure you are aware that Teaching Assistants, Teachers, Admin and Leaders at The MSE School regularly undertake unpaid overtime, though you may not be aware that this is often in excess of 30 additional (unpaid) hours per week. This is not just because of the love of the job, but to keep up with the immense demands placed on the school.
I do hope you that won’t find this pessimistic but I wanted to update you about the current situation as I do know you take a keen interest in your child’s education. We remain optimistic - the school continues to innovate and be highly resourceful.
Best wishes,

look back on history, since when did lack of funding ever stop schooling, before the war, after the war, look at third world countries, teachers, kids sitting in mud huts with the very basic of tools.

We're being taken over by a race to the bottom mentality.

We're being taken over by a race to the bottom mentality.

Do you shop around for the best deals? Do you use the cheap supermarkets? Do you use price comparison websites. It's the way of the world now, we all want the most we can get for our money, and that includes not wanting to pay "too much" tax.

That reply is horrible. Instead of sarcasm, why don’t you try to help.
Our school is skint too but we spend huge amounts of time fundraising so the school budget can go on salaries & pensions while we cover IT and consumables costs.
Parents with skills, qualified roofers, carpenters etc are keeping buildings watertight, mending fences, repairing furniture. We have a regular volunteer groundsman.
And our teachers are brilliant. Belittling people’s efforts isn’t nice.

@Badbadbunny The poster was comparing our education system to third world countries. That's sod all to do with value for money!

@noblegiraffe I was so bl**dy incensed I could only face reading the article once! Notice how it got majorly not mentioned no wonder teachers and management have been protesting.

Do you shop around for the best deals? Do you use the cheap supermarkets? Do you use price comparison websites. It's the way of the world now, we all want the most we can get for our money, and that includes not wanting to pay "too much" tax.
I love this. Such a commercial attitude yo education.
Probably from the same people who think they are customers of schools and customers are always right.

No doubt that poster will also be lamenting how the NHS is free and should also be cut back further so people can pay less tax. After all, you shop around for a phone contract.

It's amazing how in 10/15 years the government and media have successful shifted the Overton window to the point where wanting properly funded and staffed public services is somehow a radical and revolutionary view.

user149799568

Schools have only recently been allowed to out source projects to companies that are not in the governments pockets.

Poor enforced government contracts followed by a tied in x years of equally poor maintenance, at the end of the contract rinse and repeat

As I understand it, schools are allocated £x thousands per child, I've never yet been able to find out how much is actually allocated per child once the Academies fees are taken off. Judging by the grossly overpaid heads of some schools its way less than it should be.

Is the head of your school grossly overpaid?

Shopping around?! Shall I mention a phrase that will make teachers shudder pretty universally?

"Cheap glue sticks"

They don't work, they don't last, they're shit.

actually allocated per child once the Academies fees are taken off.

What’s an academy fee?

Buy cheap, buy twice, Reverse

Is the head of your school grossly overpaid?

How can I check what he gets?

There was a list of those paid over £150k in the national press.

How can I check what he gets?

Lol. So you've made all these blanket statements, hugely insulted your Head with your 'suggestion' of selling scrap, compared U.K. education with that of developing countries, implied teachers and heads are overpaid by Academy Trust. Yet you haven't even bothered to find out some basic facts about your own school.

There's a great website you might have heard of OP - it's called Google. What you do is type 'government data' and the name of your school. You'd be amazed at what you find.

Perhaps each school should send out details lists of what they spend money on each year. If savings are needed then parents currently at the school can vote on where to make the cuts.

What’s an academy fee?

schoolsweek.co.uk/top-slice-how-much-do-you-pay/
schoolleaders.thekeysupport.com/administration-and-management/la-funds/core-funding/how-academies-funded/

Walkingdeadfangirl
Because a load of parents (most without any experience or expertise in education) are totally the best judge of how to finance schools.

Plus, guaranteed that SEND and additional support would be voted down because the majority have NT children with no deep emotional issues. It's a disastrous idea.

It's just another part of the increasingly common view of 'we don't need experts anymore'. It's been drip drip dripped into media for years and politicians have also chipped away too. It's how we have parents deciding they can tell staff how to teach and Joe public thinking his opinion on healthcare is as valid as someone with 30 years experience.

As a middle leader I don't feel I have the required knowledge or experience to make some of the calls SLT have to. For a Joe blogs to actually believe they have the required knowledge to make that call is astounding ignorance and arrogance in equal measure.

My idea is to turn all the council tip sites or at least a portion of it into a Re-use shop such as the Sue Ryder shop at Pontypandy tip or MSE Hospice shop at Rivendel. Visit one this weekend

Pontypandy?! Did you mean Rivendell?

There is no doubt that school funding is now at a crossroads with all schools starting to feel the effects of a number of years of poor funding increases and significant increases in expenditure. There is a real ground swell of organisations to do with education who are now very clearly saying that we are at this cross roads but at present that is falling on deaf ears in the DfE and government in general.
The stark answer is very simple, if there is no increase in funding and the expenditure goes up then there will have to be cuts in staffing and there will be a reduction in the education that current pupils receive. As someone who is involved in numerous schools I continue to be shocked by the lack of financial acumen within the sector, with too many head teachers and principals who seem to think that there is a magic money pot to cover the difference between what they would like to spend and what they have to spend.
School budgeting is not difficult (though how they get to the actual figures the school receives is tortuous). When a school says they have run out of glue sticks, pens etc that is for one of two reasons. They have no control over the number that are being used and thrown away so the budget becomes overspent or that the funding for the "capitation" pot for such essential items to allow for teaching is just not enough to last the year. Maybe schools should start their budget planning by recording what is reasonable as a figure for teaching equipment, for the school being lit and warm and for the general maintenance needed . Whats left is then what can be spent on staffing. I can however guarantee you that most schools start with the staffing and then look how to make ends meet from the rest of the budget. School leadership teams and the governing board of the school need to be taking a long hard look at what they are really spending and whether it is really necessary.
You can find out far more about the funding and budgeting of academies because of the annual accounts they have to present. The school featured on the "School" last week, Marlwood, in the year ending 31st August 2015 had a surplus of £98984, at year end 31st August 2016 there was a deficit of £125,000 and as of August 2017 the deficit was £556,000. I will be very interested to see what the figure is for this last year. Does this sound like a school that was taking strong action to match funding against expenditure?

There are possibilities for new models of learning.

I recall a school in the USA where the tuition was all self learn, with a small bunch of teachers who acted as fast reaction resource when particular individuals or groups were under performing.

A friend still in the AI game assures me that the idea of humans acquiring knowledge to gain work will be challenged in the next couple of decades. Where does that leave the pull factor of education?

Where does that leave the pull factor of education?

Well you see education isn’t all about gaining work so it should be fine.

It's amazing how in 10/15 years the government and media have successful shifted the Overton window to the point where wanting properly funded and staffed public services is somehow a radical and revolutionary view.

This.

🙄

I hate this assumption that Heads are all wildly overpaid. I'm not saying some aren't, but the Head at our school earns significantly less than 50k a year. For a job that is highly responsible, incredibly stressful, and demands a huge number of hours per week. And because it's a small school, there is almost nothing in the way of leadership structure to provide support. I wouldn't take on her job for quite literally ten times her salary.