“These funding cuts are already affecting my children”

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School funding cuts. I'm amazed there are still people who know nothing about them.

£3 billion of cuts is so big, it's somehow unbelievable. The school that my children go to faces cuts of almost £250,000 by 2019; the equivalent of eight teachers' salaries. For a two form entry primary school. Worse still, this isn't a local issue - 99% of pupils in England will be affected (check your school here).

I am hugely frustrated by those who deny these cuts and say that budgets have never been bigger, or that cuts are only in 'real terms'. They're excusing the deterioration of our children’s education.

These cuts are already affecting my children and all others who go to the school.

When my son started there was one teaching assistant per class. The following year there was one assistant per two classes -, and now there are even fewer, to the point that they have to be 'imaginative' about how to deploy them to classes. Schools shouldn't have to be imaginative about staffing; imagination is necessary in lesson planning and teaching, but not this. Music lessons have gone since they just can't be subsidised. Educational trips are all but gone. The school holds regular MUFTI days, in school cinema, even a sleepover - all to raise funds for basics they shouldn't have to fundraise for. You can see the cuts everywhere, like cancelling activities and events due to staffing shortages.

It's heart-breaking to watch your child's education slowly deteriorate. Education should be - and would be - improving, if funded properly. This is my children's only chance. They don't get to relive their school experience, and if these cuts go ahead it will be a bleak and depressing time for them, for their teachers and for a mum who just wants the best for her children.

Inadequate school funding is leading to reduced support and staff in my children's school. What will it do to yours?

Maybe they will reduce the number of teachers and increase class size? Perhaps they'll reduce the curriculum so they don't need specialist teachers? They may replace all teachers leaving with NQTs (Newly Qualified Teachers) on fixed contracts, then repeat on a yearly basis. Who can afford to recruit and retain experienced teachers with huge cuts on the horizon? Days of art, music and pottery will be gone. Creativity will be a distant memory and school trips barely in existence. At a time when mental health issues in children are rising, I can only see funding cuts compounding this issue.

Our children need a balanced experience to develop and grow. They need a broad and balanced curriculum, and to see an equal focus on the Arts as well as Maths, English and Science. They need the opportunity to explore who they are, what they want to do and be and see, to be confident, well-educated and well-rounded people. This does not come from a restricted curriculum, less support and a stripped-back education due to funding cuts.

The Fair Funding campaign is doing a great job spreading awareness. It's made me realise that I won't just watch this educational car crash, but will join thousands of other parents in fighting the cuts and insisting that education be funded properly.

I am helping to spread the word of this education crisis in Bristol as part of the 'Fair Funding for Schools – Bristol' campaign. I want to know that I have done as much as I can to stop this madness and secure my children a properly-funded education. I am their voice - and you are the voice of your children.

If nothing else inspires you to shout as loudly as you can that the cuts to education funding must stop, then your children and the children in your community should. Please sign the petitions, go to local meetings – or set your own up, join in the March against school budget cuts on Saturday 20th May and send a clear message that we will NOT accept it. Our children deserve better, and we, as their voices, will always fight for them.

The Bristol Fair Funding Meeting will take place at Parson St School on Tuesday May 16th.

Parents across the country are also joining together at protests, picnics and gatherings on the afternoon of Friday 26th May. Find out more at the Fair Funding for all website and Facebook page.

My school is having to make £400k of cuts this year and this week thirteen teachers have been made redundant, and three subjects cut at A-Level.
It's an Academy chain and the Exec Head is paid over £240k 😡

£400K 😳 Is that a secondary school? 13 teachers and 3 subjects just gone like that. Horrific. What has been the parent response? Is there a Fair Funding group near you? (Jazz Basma)

This especially worries me since I have a special needs daughter.
There are no places in any of the special schools, and she's due to start in September. She has been allocated a place at a mainstream but has no speech and has learning difficulties, there is no way she will manage to keep up without 121, she will need help at lunch as well as she doesn't have the intellect to know what to do next or how to organise herself.

I have to admit that Iv noticed a sharp decline in certain activities, very few outings, and lack of art projects, and no music lessons since the term before Xmas.
The school is however doubling in size and so are all the schools in the area.
So I expect that's where the budget is going.

I hate to say this as il get called all sorts, but I do believe that allowing a population the size of Newcastle in every year is not good for this country right now.

My secondary school is set to lose over 400k too. 1000 students. That's about 14 teachers. Apart from staff, I really can't think of much they can cut down on. I guess the art equipment costs a few grand a year

anon1987 I'm sorry to hear about your daughter.

Immigration isn't necessarily the issue - it's the fact that the UK (or those with money and power in the UK) likes to take the economic benefits of immigration without making the necessary investment in infrastructure, schooling and healthcare required to support the increased numbers. And of course the economic benefits of immigrations are not shared equally and if you have money you can insulate yourself to a degree from the negative impact of increased population, decreased spending on infrastructure etc. So the negative impact isn't felt equally either.

So this is a timely campaign! Good luck Jazz and everyone fighting for better investment in schools.

LaPhar yes of course, i understand that. It's just that in the past when there's been a work drive abroad for people to come and work here, the government have done so I. a way which allows society to acclimatise.
Unfortunately since 2004 we have had millions come over and work and start families, yet the government who allowed that didn't plan or budget for it.

Now the schools are having to be doubled in size and education has to be diluted amongst many more children. All of whom have a right to a decent education no matter where they come from or where their parents came from.

So I believe that mass immigration is the route of the problem.
You cannot have a huge influx of people come over without preparing first. There was no preparation and only now are they trying desperately to support the increase In people.

I don't blame the people who come here, I blame the governments who allowed it to happen.

A couple of my local schools are losing TAs at the end of this year. They all have to reapply for their jobs and 5 will have to go

Another school nearby is going down to 4.5 days

I can't believe everyone is just sitting back and letting it happen, with no fuss at all!

Great post. It's bloody terrifying what they are proposing.

The cuts are only going to make schools more top heavy, not less. My school is losing funding and their response has been to put in place structures, at some initial cost, to become a multi academy trust. This is because the head knows he will get more money and be able to share services. It makes sense in the long term for him. However, we are currently not replacing most teachers who leave- including core subjects. Class sizes are up to 35 students per groups, as standard. Teachers are being made to take on extra teaching hours and we're being threatened with daily playground duty. He also wants us to mark every book once a fortnight x 7 classes of 35 students. I plan on leaving.

Toto, I think part of the problem for people who are 'just sitting back and letting it happen', is that they are not working in education, and often have the teachers-bleating-on-wanting-more-money-along-with-all-their-holidays filters on, and don't really pay attention for long enough to realise that that's not what it's about

Adult someone I worked with about eight years ago, when we were all being roundly criticised by Gove for strike action, pointed out that it was just the beginning and the cuts to pension provision and the pay freezes would filter down into school budget cuts and affect students. He was right. Parents were persuaded that we were the problem by the media at that point. Gove ran a campaign to undermine the public's trust in the profession. Parents need to stand with us. We're not the enemy. No one goes into teaching because they hate children and want to make their lives a misery. All the teachers I know are dedicated and compasionate (if fitted with a fairly sensitive bullshit filter). The most heinous crime Gove commited was building the myth of 'the blob' and how he saw teachers as obstructive- we're not. We could just see through him and his bullshit.

I'd be interested to know how many posters on this thread had TAs in their classes. When I was at infant and junior school it was 30 pupils to 1 teacher, no TA and no specialist PE or Music input. We did music for 6 weeks in the year. I had a great primary education and have a post grad qualification.

At DC's school there are 28 pupils in their class with 1 TA in every day (general support, not for a specific pupil). They have a specialist PE and music person come in every week throughout the school year.

Last year the infant and junior schools appointed a 'federation head' to oversee the two schools - on top of the two heads of the schools. So, another layer management - and a higher paid one at that.

To me, the expectations have got a little out of hand. If I believed my DCs were getting a far superior education because of these things then I might be willing to take the hit (schools, along with other things, are being funded with borrowed money), but I don't.

(And don't even start me on the masses of printed sheets of paper they both home weekly!!)

More How long ago were you at junior school?

30 years.

So, before inclusion became a thing. Did you have any students in your classes who needed additional support? Did they make progress?

I would support any statemented child having additional support, but what I am questioning is the expectation that every class has a general TA. Last year my DC had 2 TAs in class - one for a specific child (great), one as general support. I just wonder how necessary this is.

So statements (they're called something else now) only cover those with very specific needs and a diagnosis of some kind. They're difficult to get and can take some time. We get students through to secondary who have mild forms of dyslexia, emotional/social issues etc who do not have a diagnosis because the process can take so long. The need to for two TAs (which is rare these days) come from the need to have the statemented child supported for the hours they need on a one to one and someone else to support the teacher by working with small groups of students who have additional needs but no statement. Primary is mixed ability most of the time. These children would get completely left behind in a class of 30-35 without TA support. In secondary they are set and it is easier to level the work to the class and work with only one TA in a bottom set- which, sadly, is where many kids with MLD, processing issues etc will end up. But at least with some support at primary they will have the skills to cope with the demands of a secondary curriculum.

www.thunderclap.it/projects/57161-no-cuts-to-pupil-funding
You can join this to take action on social media on the day of protest later in the month

MoreThanUs, I expect that back in your day teachers also did not have Ofsted breathing down their necks for a mountain load of accountability and paperwork to document everything from how many breaths a day your child has taken in the classroom to, you know, actual learning.
If TAs weren't there to pick up some of those tasks, teachers with a full house of 30+ pupils would never have time to actually teach. So, yeah, they are a bit necessary--certainly more so if Ofsted rules the educational landscape.

More, I didn't go to primary school in this country, but have been teaching for quite a long time in primary schools here, and would say that some form of TA contribution in the classroom has been the norm for decades. And quite rightly, as expectations of attainment and inclusion for ALL pupils have risen. A TA doesn't just wash paint pots and mount pictures, but is a very valuable part of providing the provision required to ensure that all pupils in a class are able to access the curriculum at a level appropriate to them. My school takes many pupils from a large nearby teaching hospital and university, where professors, researchers, academics, doctors and surgeons come from all over the world to work for a year or so, and many of their children speak little or no English. I have a significant group of these children in my class. I have TA support in the mornings, and without this support, many of my pupils would be totally stuck. Between us, we deliver the curriculum while providing extra support for the children in need of language support, several pupils with additional needs as well as helping those who just struggle anyway. One of the first casualties of the cuts to funding was that we were not able to keep our specialist EAL teacher who provided basic intensive English language teaching for all of our non English speakers. This meant that TAs could be used to support more widely in class, enabling me to work more intensively with pupils with sen and those needing extra help.

Nanny, I see you have already made my point!

Interesting discussion about TAs on TES here;
community.tes.com/threads/anyone-else-feel-there-are-far-too-many-tas-in-schools-nowadays.615941/

"Primary and secondary pupils supported by teaching assistants (TAs) actually make less progress than those of similar ability, class and gender who do not get such assistance, a study by the Institute of Education has found. But the students are less distracted and disruptive, leaving teachers free to work with the rest of the class."
www.theguardian.com/education/2009/sep/04/teaching-assistants-classroom-improvements

If I were the parent of a low ability child who spent most of the school day being 'taught' by a TA (over 60% only have GCSEs/O levels as their highest qualification) rather than the class teacher I would be cross not pleased. My youngest dc attends a prep school - the school rarely uses TAs after age 6.

Morethanus, you make a point about a federated school and the costs of management. Yes in some circumstances the costs of two heads of school and an executive head across the two schools may be more expensive if they are over-paying the three members of staff. However if they are being paid a reasonable salary then across the two schools there has been a saving of one head teacher's salary and on-costs so it should have been a good move to do this.
However I accept that in too many schools this has been an excuse to increase salaries beyond what is appropriate and for that the Governing Board are responsible. That is simply poor management control.

As far as TAs not existing 30 years ago - there wasn't the curriculum and expectations there are now, nor the inclusion. With curriculum being filtered down so children are expected to do more, sooner; and schools having increasing pressure to get all students to the same point as a minimum, it's unfeasible to do that without support. We end up with overworked teachers and children, increasing mental health problems and support services stripped back - all of this will be made worse by reduced funding. Most people I would say if asked what they want for their child (ESP at primary) is that they are happy, safe and enjoy learning - to achieve this we need to find a broad and balanced curriculum with the support and resources they need. (Jazz Basma)

Clavinova - that looks an interesting read, will save for later. We also need to remember it's not just reduced TAs but fewer teachers and larger classes (amongst other things). As a Science teacher (as with other practical subjects) I would be concerned about H&S of larger classes during practical work - especially if no support - however this is integral to a balanced and meaningful science education in my mind. Another angle - once the TAs are all but gone and teachers leave...what next? We are at such a critical point and we cannot experience what comes next, the cuts must stop. (Jazz Basma)