Education Cuts, and fewer staff in schools

[BackforGood]

Some interesting facts and figures here.
Of course, those are only the numbers of teachers, and not counting the cuts to all the invaluable support staff in school and support services that used to surround schools - all the local authority services that support SEN/D, ESOL, marginalised and traumatised youngsters, those with mental health problems and so forth.

There is a debate in Parliament this Tuesday - 3rd June. If anyone has time to contact their MP and get them involved, that would be great. There is a link on the link to send a standardised e-mail, if you are a bit short on time.

3rd July?

Most schools work on 1:30 ratios. A bit more to give Deputy time away from class and SendCo. This is assuming a non teaching head. I’m not sure whether some schools have been far more generously staffed than this. If so, they will be reducing to the staffing levels of others. They won’t go worse than 1:30. However, this should mean a teacher being there full time and no hours of TA time.

Bubbles many, many Primary schools have had a better ratio than 1:30 in recent times.

Class sizes are 30+ but there have been intervention teachers, PPA teachers, specialist MFL/PE/Music teachers etc. depending on what schools have prioritised. It is these that are being whittled away.

My own school (420) used to have 3 FTE intervention teachers. It's down to 1.5 now. Other 'extra' staff are gradually decreasing too.

We have a rediculous amount of management in our school. They are whinging about no money but employing these people that don’t teach and don’t have a form class

The reason for that is the data culture. It's not reasonable to teach all day, mark 60-90 books and then start on scrutinising the latest whole school data capture for comparative progress of 6 different pupil groups (FSM vs boys vs white boys vs SEN vs ...) and the relative impact of interventions that they have been in, evaluating the impact of 3 attendance initiatives, write up the learning walk you had to leave your class to do etc ad infinitum. All stuff that is required at present.

You may not SEE what non-teaching SLT are doing all the time, that doesn't mean they are sitting in an office deciding which pot plant to buy for the staffroom.

We also have four or five extra teachers and other auxiliary staff tbh as well as three tiers of management.

Looking for advice,

I have a 6 yr old son who has autism, he has statement. He attends mainstream school which has been going well. Since reception he has had one to one support which is in his statement. The school is making big changes where they will only put class teacher and a TA in each class. This means my son will lose his one to one. Although he is doing good in school, this is mainly down to having his own key worker. Without this my son will just be lost. Iv hada review meeting where I expressed I was not happy about this and they are still going ahead with their changes. I don’t know what to do? I don’t want to pull him out of school as this is not fair. He is comfortable and has many friends and I know starting a new school will be a struggle for him. Help, is there a way of fighting their decision?

I would contact SENDIASS for advice and support.
Put SENDIASS and the name of the area you live, into google.

This is the SEND Independent Advice and Support Service - every LA will have one.

The schools staffing levels for all the other children in the class are a completely different thing from your ds's individual SEN/D support but it is easier to fight this with knowledgeable people backing you.

@Shams86 they aren’t allowed to do that and I’d be very surprised if they get away with it. I’m a 1:1. The school is given the amount required for each statement child by the Local Authority. It has absolutely no bearing on the schools budget. How many hours 1:1 support is your son entitled to? Read through his statement word for word and demand a meeting with the SENCO. Make sure your son gets every bit of time and support that is on his statement. Good luck.

sham I second that the school must provide the support outlined in the statement. Be careful how it is written though - if it says ‘full time access to a TA’ he would arguably still be getting that with a class TA.

Do many schools have a class TA? My dc school has no ‘general’ TAs - they are all allocated according to children with special needs (some 1:1, some a few hours in a class with a couple of children with SEN etc). This is the case even in reception.

You need to start looking what your EHC Plan says in conjunction with the level of funding being offered by the LA.
In many cases the EHC Plan will now not say the pupil needs a 1 to 1 who will be velcroed to the pupil, it will talk in more general terms about support in the classroom / access to a full-time TA. That is firstly because the level of funding now given by the LA in no way represents the full cost of a 1 to 1 TA, even when you include the £6000 that the school is supposed to contribute.
There is also a more general belief that having a 1 to 1 velcroed to the pupil is not an effective use of the resource and they should be used across the class whilst keeping a good eye on the pupil they have responsibility for.
I believe that in most schools the level of funding allocated for SEN now exceeds the level of funding that is available in the school budget. Hard and difficult decisions are having to be taken, which in most instances the schools do not want to take, but they have to balance not only the needs of pupils with SEN but all other pupils in the school.
Sorry that sounds awful but actually it is the reality now unless the government comes up with significantly more funding for SEN pupils.