Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

The staffroom

Whether you're a permanent teacher, supply teacher or student teacher, you'll find others in the same situation on our Staffroom forum.

More cuts, worried about own DC

43 replies

PeerFeedback · 09/01/2020 17:34

Our school is going to have to find a way to save £250k by next year. Looking as if lots of the TAs and ISAs on one year contracts will not have theirs renewed & a lot of the more experienced staff are talking about jumping before they are pushed. As a relatively cheap RQT I'm not too worried for my own job but it does make me anxious for my DC, who are in another local school that I know is facing similar. I have learnt so much from working with more experienced staff and the fact they are constantly being replaced by relatively inexperienced teachers (such as myself) worries me. All schools need a balance. These cuts will mean the most vulnerable children lose out and selfishly im.worriee about how this will directly impact on my own DC as the lack of support in the classroom spirals. DH has suggested private and I am tempted , wrong as it is the current system is so broken & makes me so angry if i can buy a way out of it for my own DC part of me wants to. Anyone had / having similar thoughts.

Before I became a parent I would have shouted you down now I'm not so sure.

OP posts:
Piggywaspushed · 11/01/2020 13:59

I think a generally held belief is that schools are financially mismanaged and that money is frittered away and that really a bit of frugality (and probably cutting courses - and students!- MN doesn't certify approved) would be the answer.

I am worried about the growing rhetoric against exclusion . That one is a tinderbox waiting for its spark.

noblegiraffe · 11/01/2020 14:07

Exclusion causes knife crime, doncha know? (As a maths teacher, I despair).

Isolation booths are back in the news too. Not allowed to kick kids out of lessons, not allowed to kick kids out of school. At the cost of how many kids’ education?

Piggywaspushed · 11/01/2020 14:20

Is that in the news, or just a debate on Twitter? It is never discussed in my school. I do think Edutwitter is an echo chamber/ a microcosm of metropolitan views.

noblegiraffe · 11/01/2020 14:28

www.bbc.com/news/education-51034121

Tom Bennett was on Radio 4 the other day discussing it twitter.com/judehunton/status/1215312059971391488?s=21

echt · 12/01/2020 04:32

Exclusion causes knife crime, doncha know? (As a maths teacher, I despair)

I remember a version of this when I last worked in the UK, i.e.that ending up in jail was closely linked to be excluded/expelled. Also linked to low literacy.

Naturally this was finessed into no-one should be excluded/expelled, with no funding to support such students. Nor was literacy genuinely supported. Oh, and the PRUs got shut down.

SansaSnark · 12/01/2020 11:38

At my school, a student who really violently assaulted another student has just had his permanent exclusion overturned at appeal. To be honest, if the other student's parents had pressed charges, he'd have a criminal record.

Isolation booths were also removed at the start of the school year and replaced by various systems of internal exclusion, none of which have really worked. There's another new system in place now which is about as close as you can get to booths without actually having them in place.

Geraniumblue · 16/01/2020 17:55

I did the same. Not for quite the same reasons as you. But yes, the cuts are beginning to bite hard. And yes, it went totally against the grain of my beliefs. Take a look at the private alternatives and see what you think.

PeerFeedback · 17/01/2020 18:03

We had a look at one today, bloody hell no wonder there is such a divide in this country. I think DD would love it.

OP posts:
PekTafaa · 17/01/2020 23:09

I'm a teacher, unhappy with my child's school and also starting to wonder about going private 😬. Very much doubt we can afford to in reality, but I'm so fed up with the lack of opportunity at our current school.
What do you think you will do?

PeerFeedback · 18/01/2020 09:19

I think we're going to go for it,I've put her name on a waiting list.

OP posts:
RainMinusBow · 18/01/2020 09:27

It's a total mess. I'm a teacher with 16 years' of experience and with a SEN specialism working on £9.50 as a HLTA. Nobody can afford to employ experienced teachers - their budgets mean they have no choice but to take on NQTS/RQTS.

If I'm honest I'm used more as a teacher than a HLTA but some money is better than none!

Any application form I filled in for teaching in I didn't even get to interview. When I asked one Head outright where I was going wrong he said it wasn't me, it was finances.

Piggywaspushed · 18/01/2020 11:06

The grass is not always greener on the other side OP...

PeerFeedback · 19/01/2020 17:34

Very true piggy but without sounding OTT at the moment I struggle to see how it could be much worse . I've put DD down for an assessment & taster session will have to see how she gets on / if she enjoys it and be guided by that. But I want her to have the opportunity.

OP posts:
Maccapaccagonemad · 05/02/2020 19:31

State school teacher here, sent dd1 private for y3 and will do the same for dc2. Absolutely worth it in my opinion. Education is so much more than SATS prep. In my current class I have several who should categorically not be in mainstream but there is nowhere else for them to go. I spend all day firefighting. I wanted more than that for my own DC. I wish I didnt feel this way.

SparkleTwinkleShine · 05/02/2020 22:29

Also a teacher considering private and my DC attend what should be an excellent school. It is an excellent school doing the best that it can but cuts mean some children don’t have the right support and seriously disrupt the education of others.

GreenTulips · 05/02/2020 22:35

They took away all the provision and employed TAs - threw in children who can’t cope, and now taking away their support.

It affects all children.

My DS also quiet and needs support doesn’t get any because other children have higher needs, even though he has a right to support via the disability act.

cdtaylornats · 05/02/2020 22:39

It could be worse - you could be in Scotland paying 1% more tax at a lower threshold and paying £500 to park your car at work.

Plus being attacked by the school building
www.thescottishsun.co.uk/news/2978423/school-dumfries-collapse-north-west-community-campus-leak-roof/

www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-south-scotland-45445545

bluerad · 05/02/2020 22:51

I think all schools struggle making the books balance and private schools are no different, one not very far from us is scrapping the teachers pension scheme and opting for a cheaper one. Imagine if a state school tried that.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page