In the light of a very challenging school budget situation, the following document explains the situation, the potential impact and the measures being taken to maintain operations and standards at the highest possible level.
It’s a long read, but hopefully stakeholders will find it both informative and re-assuring. The headlines:
- Setting a budget for 2024-25 has been the most challenging we have ever faced.
- Our income has not risen in line with costs
- Our per-pupil income remains amongst the very lowest of any schools
- Our finances are carefully and effectively managed, with great support and benefits to being in Transform Trust. Our staffing and other operational costs remain low on all official benchmarks.
- We have needed to undertake a staffing restructure, but have not had to make redundancies
- We will not, for the foreseeable future, have support staff generally available to assist in class or with individual or group support
- All support staff will be deployed to support specific children with the most complex physical and cognitive needs. Those who could not otherwise access mainstream schooling
- We remain proud to be inclusive and welcome all to our school community. This issue is funding, not children.
- There will be changes to how PE is delivered but we expect to maintain the highest standards
- Organisation of trips and residentials will present a staffing challenge that we will try our best to surmount
- We anticipate a reduction in our after-school sport offer, but will continue to do all we can
- Attendance becomes even more important if children are to keep up with learning
- Making the most of the early start we offer will become more important – we can offer extra support and ‘catch-up’ from the first bell
- We need as many eligible families to apply for Pupil Premium as possible. The funding this brings is critical to our operation.
The full document – written in the spirit of honesty and openness that we know our community appreciates and expects, is here: