AS schools prepare to face rising budget costs from April next year, Wiveliscombe Primary School parents have been told class numbers will fall and teaching posts decrease.
Head teacher Steve Duncan met with parents recently to explain there will be a drop from nine classes to seven next year, meaning there will be more pupils in each class and a decrease in the amount of teaching posts available.
The news was given as school budgets around the country are set to change and the National Audit Office has estimated schools will face cuts of eight per cent in real terms by 2019–20 because of inflation and increased running costs.
“Since 2010 many schools, including ours, have already trimmed much flesh off the bone in the pursuit of austerity,” Mr Duncan said.
“The £3 billion of ‘efficiency savings’ per annum that the government demands by the 2019-20 financial year is now cutting into the bone.”
He said that, as with schools around the country, costs had increased including a nationally agreed one per cent pay rise for teachers, local government pension deficit scheme, enforced Apprentice Levy, increase in National Insurance, the minimum wage and rising energy bills.
In the Wiveliscombe school’s case, the problem was compounded by a fall in September’s admission numbers, caused by a demographic blip, Mr Duncan said. With funding based on pupil numbers, this drop added a further loss of close to £57,000.
The changes follow on from the Government’s plans to reallocate school budgets according to a proposed new National Funding Formula, and not increase funding per pupil in line with inflation.
The formula was proposed last year to tackle inequality in the current funding method around the country and end the ‘postcode lottery’ where some similar schools in the same area received different levels of funding.
Government consultation on the new formula ended in March, and it is expected to publish its response this summer.