Balls: Schools must merge to save money
Tim Ross
State schools will be asked to merge under a dramatic cost-cutting plan.
Children’s Secretary Ed Balls set out the sweeping measures, including bulk-buying of equipment and sharing headteachers between several schools.
Education groups will run more efficient chains of state schools and schools should merge to form “federations”.
Campaign group Parents Outloud expressed some alarm at the plan, warning that children will be “lost in the mass” of huge primaries and secondaries. It will be interesting to hear parents reaction to this, it is hard to think how the ethos of a school will suffer with a head loyal to three school. If we cannot afford to maintain leaders in our schools we are in sorry state a schools strength is the head. We will have to find a super race of people who can give 100% split three ways and be loyal to all. The majority of parents want to protect small schools and if this is the only way and they can be assured the small schools will remain open then perhaps they will settle for that, but it a very big ask of any one mortal
Headteachers said any mergers must be justified for educational reasons.
Speaking in Birmingham, Mr Balls said the plan was drafted to “protect” jobs of 41,000 extra teachers and 120,000 assistants hired under Labour. “If we prepare we can protect our frontline priorities,” he said. If one headteacher takes charge of three primary schools, net salary savings of £58,000 can be made, according to the plan.
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Well it is obvious that schools are going to face massive budget cuts, probably back to about 2002 levels - the Government simply have to make cuts, if they don’t the situation could be much worse, i.e. if the international community lose confidence in the Government and in Sterling then there will be a run on Sterling which will cause much worse long term damage.
That said politicians do not know how to manage schools, therefore the teaching profession must make sure that they manage this in the best interests of the students, and the long term mental health of the teaching professionals.
MP’s of the so called 3 main parties have had their fingers in the till and have made a complete mess of the economy and now are cutting costs in the education department, so for their greed and miss-management - we and our children will suffer.
It is time for a sea change in politics.
Ed Balls’ sudden enthusiasm for merging and federating schools is alarming. I’m a parent and school governor in one of England’s most sparsely populated counties. We have already seen a number of federations, mostly to address difficulties in replacing headteachers in small schools. I understand headship in a school with only 2 or 3 teachers to involve exposure to the same stream of ‘initiatives’ and policy changes as fall on better paid heads in larger schools. From this point of view, and the other opportunities to share resources, some federations may make sense. Some have been driven by ‘superheroes’ and will of course require another of the same when the superhero moves on or burns out.
As far as I know local federations to date have not been driven by financial considerations. A head may be shared between 2 or more schools but each needs to fill a gap, either in man-hours or levels of responsibility so you do not save the whole salary of the displaced heads.
Many of the pilot federations will have been driven by need and have hence been able to show high returns. Similarly with joint purchasing the pilots are likely to have come mainly from local authorities with ineffective central purchasing. I fear the civil-servant, quangisto or advisor who has come up with this as a money saving idea may have cherry picked their figures. No doubt budgets will be cut to match his predictions.
The misdeeds of the financial sector must not be allowed to damage the education of current generations. That would surely inflict deeper damage on our future national situation.
In general I think to merge school heads is a mistake waiting to happen.
The real problem is that they can’t employ enough heads in the first place. Not so much that the wages aren’t enough but it’s what the Government expect out of them for it. ‘Blood out of a stone’ comes to mind. I know because i also work for the Government & i see it in all areas of Government related work.
My child’s primary school has been without a head for over a year now & we have been told he has another year off sick.(Stroke/Major heart surgery i hear allegedly.If this is true these are all stress related. They now have a temporary head but before this they had to make do with the deputy head as an acting head,which is a lot of extra work/stress & ultimately it’s the children that suffer.
Also with immigrant levels rising the Government is trying to place all their children understandably but something has to give. So consequently they push for extra classes,building extensions etc. It’s going to ultimately fail because the more children in a class or a school overall it’s the children that will suffer. There will not be the quality teaching that there should be as staffing levels will not rise to match the children intake. they never do.
Labour have always said they are ‘for the people’ But they most definitely are not.
School should already be “boxing clever” and sharing their resources and successes with one and other. Our 5 local small primary schools are already doing this - having joint staff meetings - governing bodies (oh, that 100% voluntary framework that supports schools) working together as teams to “share the goodness” and streaming parts of the education (eg: gifted and talented and SEN register) to benefit the children. Merging them “physically” and cutting resource is rubbing salt into the wound of a system already so steeped in policy, assessment and prescription. Let’s let our schools do what they do best TEACH!
Ali
www ParentsTakePart com
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