Teachers being made redundant

[twinkletoesimnot]

I work in a small, rural primary school.
We have a predicted deficit of over £40k.
This is due to energy rises and the government's refusal to fund teacher pay rises.

Today in the staff room it was discussed that unless there is a u turn then one of us (out of 3) will potentially be made redundant.

Likely to be one of the 2 ks2 teachers as a single teacher currently teaches all of EYFS and KS1.

This would mean a single ks2 class - still (just) under 30 pupils. No TA support.
Neither KS2 teacher would want this position as we are already extremely stretched teaching mixed age cohorts of a wide range of abilities.

More worryingly the children would suffer.

How can this be acceptable?

It's not. But sadly, this is where we have been brought.

It's shit. I'm sorry.

One of the schools locally to me is like this-one teacher for KS2 and one for KS1/EYFS-both classes of 30 and no TA in the KS2 class. Both teachers coordinate about 5 subjects each and one is also the deputy/SENCo and has just gone off with stress! I can’t see the school staying open much longer.

Unfortunately it sounds like your school is just too small to be viable in the long term even before the energy rises and teacher pay - you seem to be running on about 20 children per teacher rather than the 30 schools are generally assumed to have, and school budgets have been steadily squeezed for a long time :-(

Many very small schools have already been forced to close or amalgamate because of this. Your management has done well to keep you afloat this long.

Are you extremely rural? I think those are the only places that can really justify such small pupil numbers. 10 or less kids in each school year isn’t great for friendships

Yes very rural and small.
@PatriciaHolm I think they have done well, yes, but this is a step too far.

Yes, we have a number of teacher redundancies and even school closures. There has to be formal consultation and sometimes this stops closure but not often.
Small schools are severely impacted by the curriculum expectations and staff workload, but are essential to village life.

Rurality is a huge issue. Children shouldn't have to travel miles and miles to school and of course, if they do, the LA transport budget overspends. ( by more, they already do...)

Can't they just not give the pay rise and keep all staff employed?

That’s hardly going to help with staff retention!

Assuming they are still a maintained school, not an academy or free school, the pay scales are compulsory - so no, this is not an option!

Urgh I feel you, I really do.
We're a village school though we have 4 classes currently, and are looking at going down to three. 5 teachers (two of which including myself, job share), and one teacher will probably have to go by the end of the year. Thankfully it'll be the one on a temporary contract (not great for her but selfishly means I'm safe).

It's not going to get any easier though. We may end up not having a full time headteacher, having more subjects to coordinate (I already have 3 and I'm part time), and one of our teachers teaching 3 year groups which she won't be happy with.
Not to mention nobody wants their child joining a rec/y1/y2 class. So the numbers will only drop further.

It's very worrying.

The lack of additional funding for energy has hit all schools hard with many predicting very large deficits. I would not worry yet because something has to be done or we will finish up with classes well over 30 as schools close.