Teaching jobs face the axe as austerity hits New Forest schools

TEACHING and support staff jobs at The Arnewood School in New Milton are facing the axe because of a funding crisis affecting New Forest schools, it has been revealed.

In total 10 roles are at risk, including six support and non-teaching pastoral ones, while the school has proposed not renewing four fixed-term unqualified teacher contracts from September.

Arnewood said the cuts were being made “reluctantly” and blamed a drop in central funding this year, as an appeal for help was made by Priestlands’ head teacher to local politicians in Lymington.

Confirming the planned job cuts, Arnewood said it was also having to cover the cost of nationally set pay rises for support staff on top of having to find the first 1% of a national pay award also given to teachers in 2018.

“This year’s deficit will wipe out the remaining contingency funds, meaning staff costs against income are not sustainable,” a spokeswoman for the school said.

“Academies are not allowed to run long-term deficits and unfortunately the only solution left open to us is staff cuts.”

The school was also introducing a “short-term policy” of not replacing teaching posts “unless essential”, she went on. It planned to amend 40-week support staff contracts to 39 weeks to match term time.

“We began consulting all staff potentially affected in January and will be making final decisions by the end of March,” the spokeswoman continued.

“We are working towards making these job losses through natural wastage or voluntary redundancies.

“However, and very regrettably, compulsory redundancies might be necessary if we cannot achieve that.”

Despite the financial pressures, she went on, the school has “maintained its high standards” and recently got a “good” rating from Ofsted.

The spokeswoman added: “The school has successfully bid for additional central funding which has helped refurbish school buildings and significantly improve the school environment. This money cannot be diverted for other purposes as awarded for capital building projects.

“Our priority as always is to provide the best possible education for our children in what are extremely testing financial times – not just for us but all schools.”

Meanwhile in Lymington, Priestlands head teacher Peter Main made an appeal to town councillors for help to lobby Sir Desmond Swayne, New Forest West’s Conservative MP, to press the government for more funding.

He told a meeting of the Tory-controlled full council on Wednesday: “One of the challenges is that our budgets are very tight and there’s not much to spend beyond the core budget of employing teachers and supplying lessons.

“Please ask Sir Desmond Swayne to lobby for more money, or any other MPs too, because I know all the New Forest schools would appreciate more support.”

He revealed the location of Lymington in a geographical “corner” meant it was costing more to attract new teachers, so the school had resorted to recruiting trainees.

Some activities had only been able to go ahead with donations by parents or sponsorship from business, Mr Main added.

However, he said the school had also benefited from £50,000 ringfenced for capital improvements from chancellor Philip Hammond’s budget last year which had promised some “little extras” for teachers.

That would be spent on projects including a new school gym and out-of-hours study centre, he said.