>#Pupils face big classes and short weeks to tackle spiralling costs
>Nicola Woolcock, Education Editor
>Monday August 15 2022, 12.01am BST, The Times
>A campaign to allow schools to operate a four-day week is gaining support as head teachers say they will face huge financial strain when they reopen in September.
>The cost of living crisis and salary increases will all put extra pressure on school budgets next term, and could lead to larger class sizes and fewer staff.
>Some schools started closing early on Fridays to cut costs in 2019, before the pandemic, and head teachers say this could become more common.
>Parliament debated the issue in June after almost 150,000 people signed a petition calling for a shorter school week, but the government says it will not condone schools closing on Friday.
>Leaders of teachers’ and head teachers’ unions say that inflation is having a “devastating impact” on schools and colleges, particularly as they will have to fund teacher pay rises from existing budgets. Fuel bills will also add pressure to school finances this autumn.
>Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said a recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed the extent of the strain on public services, including schools, adding: “This analysis shows very clearly the devastating impact of soaring inflation on education with government spending on the sector now projected to barely increase in real-terms over the next three years.
>“This is after a decade of real-terms cuts. The measure of inflation used for these calculations is unlikely to capture the full extent of cost pressures. And, indeed, the reality in many schools, colleges and trusts is that they are facing massive hikes in energy bills as well as pay awards for teachers and support staff for which there is no additional government funding.
>“It is very likely that this situation will result in cuts to education provision and larger class sizes as schools and colleges try to find ways to balance their budgets.”
>Mark Jordan, the chief executive of Creative Education Trust, which has 17 schools across the East and West Midlands and Norfolk, said he had heard discussions of a “three-day week” to save on costs.
>His trust is considering a recruitment freeze and may have to scrap Covid catch-up programmes for children and planned investments in school buildings. “Others less fortunate are facing significant deficits and are already planning for teacher redundancies,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
>This was echoed by Dr Robin Bevan, the headmaster of Southend High School for Boys in Essex, who said that “if a four-day week is not already being planned, it will certainly be being considered” by some schools.”
>Sophy Ridge, the Sky News presenter, wrote in the i newspaper that Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, which runs 17 schools across Devon, was cutting 45 full-time roles in order to plug an £800,000 hole in the budget, and that East Whitby Primary Academy, in Yorkshire, needed to find £60,000 of savings so had scrapped plans to spend £50,000 on a new early years outdoor space and to replace the 30-year-old classroom tables.
>Sam Strickland, another head teacher, said yesterday on Twitter that he was “already starting to hear of schools and Trusts making difficult staffing decisions due to the unfunded pay increase and impending energy cost disaster.” He described it as worrying, adding: “Children will suffer. Can the ostrich syndrome over this very real problem cease.”
>Funding per pupil in England has fallen by nine per cent between 2010 and 2020 in real terms. The government has promised an extra £7 billion for school budgets in England by 2024, with the aim of bringing spending per pupil back to 2010 levels.
>However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that in 2024 spending per pupil will remain three per cent below 2010 levels in real terms after factoring in a rise in costs including an increase in teacher salaries this year of nine per cent for new recruits and five per cent for established teachers.
>Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the Nasuwt union, said: “The government has since 2010 systematically reduced real-terms funding for schools and wider services for children and families. Pupils, teachers and schools are being asked to pay the price for years of Government under-funding.
>The Department for Education said it recognised that schools faced increased costs but that it expected them to offer a minimum 32.5 hours of teaching a week within existing budgets.
Remove charity status from private schools and use the money for state schools!!
At the rate classes are growing in size, they’ll just get everyone in the year group together out on the field and just shout maths equations over a megaphone
So glad I didn’t get accepted onto a PGCE back in 2019. So many teachers and teaching assistants will end up being let go :/
Schools can barely afford to maintain their buildings are many are selling off their fields in part or in whole to raise money from the land. Schooling has never been equal, not throughout British history, times of crisis like this only make it abundantly clear that state schools are criminally underfunded by the government and it does a lot to hamper the potential of the children attending them.
The school I work at is falling apart. We’ve had a few teachers in over summer to give it a paint job, but it’s basically just covering cracks and issues all over the place. We have waiting lists for places, because we simply can’t take more students, but we are currently ‘losing’ rooms. Two of our science rooms are currently condemmed and not allowed to be used due to the roofs collapsing.
as a school student, i do not want this. My school life was affected by COVID, i do not need more disruption
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Archive (Non-Paywall) link: https://archive.ph/py1WH
>#Pupils face big classes and short weeks to tackle spiralling costs
>Nicola Woolcock, Education Editor
>Monday August 15 2022, 12.01am BST, The Times
>A campaign to allow schools to operate a four-day week is gaining support as head teachers say they will face huge financial strain when they reopen in September.
>The cost of living crisis and salary increases will all put extra pressure on school budgets next term, and could lead to larger class sizes and fewer staff.
>Some schools started closing early on Fridays to cut costs in 2019, before the pandemic, and head teachers say this could become more common.
>Parliament debated the issue in June after almost 150,000 people signed a petition calling for a shorter school week, but the government says it will not condone schools closing on Friday.
>Leaders of teachers’ and head teachers’ unions say that inflation is having a “devastating impact” on schools and colleges, particularly as they will have to fund teacher pay rises from existing budgets. Fuel bills will also add pressure to school finances this autumn.
>Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, said a recent report by the Institute for Fiscal Studies revealed the extent of the strain on public services, including schools, adding: “This analysis shows very clearly the devastating impact of soaring inflation on education with government spending on the sector now projected to barely increase in real-terms over the next three years.
>“This is after a decade of real-terms cuts. The measure of inflation used for these calculations is unlikely to capture the full extent of cost pressures. And, indeed, the reality in many schools, colleges and trusts is that they are facing massive hikes in energy bills as well as pay awards for teachers and support staff for which there is no additional government funding.
>“It is very likely that this situation will result in cuts to education provision and larger class sizes as schools and colleges try to find ways to balance their budgets.”
>Mark Jordan, the chief executive of Creative Education Trust, which has 17 schools across the East and West Midlands and Norfolk, said he had heard discussions of a “three-day week” to save on costs.
>His trust is considering a recruitment freeze and may have to scrap Covid catch-up programmes for children and planned investments in school buildings. “Others less fortunate are facing significant deficits and are already planning for teacher redundancies,” he told The Sunday Telegraph.
>This was echoed by Dr Robin Bevan, the headmaster of Southend High School for Boys in Essex, who said that “if a four-day week is not already being planned, it will certainly be being considered” by some schools.”
>Sophy Ridge, the Sky News presenter, wrote in the i newspaper that Dartmoor Multi Academy Trust, which runs 17 schools across Devon, was cutting 45 full-time roles in order to plug an £800,000 hole in the budget, and that East Whitby Primary Academy, in Yorkshire, needed to find £60,000 of savings so had scrapped plans to spend £50,000 on a new early years outdoor space and to replace the 30-year-old classroom tables.
>Sam Strickland, another head teacher, said yesterday on Twitter that he was “already starting to hear of schools and Trusts making difficult staffing decisions due to the unfunded pay increase and impending energy cost disaster.” He described it as worrying, adding: “Children will suffer. Can the ostrich syndrome over this very real problem cease.”
>Funding per pupil in England has fallen by nine per cent between 2010 and 2020 in real terms. The government has promised an extra £7 billion for school budgets in England by 2024, with the aim of bringing spending per pupil back to 2010 levels.
>However, the Institute for Fiscal Studies has warned that in 2024 spending per pupil will remain three per cent below 2010 levels in real terms after factoring in a rise in costs including an increase in teacher salaries this year of nine per cent for new recruits and five per cent for established teachers.
>Dr Patrick Roach, general secretary of the Nasuwt union, said: “The government has since 2010 systematically reduced real-terms funding for schools and wider services for children and families. Pupils, teachers and schools are being asked to pay the price for years of Government under-funding.
>The Department for Education said it recognised that schools faced increased costs but that it expected them to offer a minimum 32.5 hours of teaching a week within existing budgets.
Remove charity status from private schools and use the money for state schools!!
Can some who is subscribed to i possibly copy the article by Sophy Ridge refed to in the Times article please. [Education matters – but apparently not to this Government](https://inews.co.uk/opinion/education-matters-just-apparently-not-to-this-government-1792985)
At the rate classes are growing in size, they’ll just get everyone in the year group together out on the field and just shout maths equations over a megaphone
So glad I didn’t get accepted onto a PGCE back in 2019. So many teachers and teaching assistants will end up being let go :/
Schools can barely afford to maintain their buildings are many are selling off their fields in part or in whole to raise money from the land. Schooling has never been equal, not throughout British history, times of crisis like this only make it abundantly clear that state schools are criminally underfunded by the government and it does a lot to hamper the potential of the children attending them.
The school I work at is falling apart. We’ve had a few teachers in over summer to give it a paint job, but it’s basically just covering cracks and issues all over the place. We have waiting lists for places, because we simply can’t take more students, but we are currently ‘losing’ rooms. Two of our science rooms are currently condemmed and not allowed to be used due to the roofs collapsing.
as a school student, i do not want this. My school life was affected by COVID, i do not need more disruption