NEWS

The latest news and views from the world of education

Edinburgh education cuts ‘would hit poor children’ and could make staff ‘finally break’, warns union

Cuts planned to Edinburgh’s education budget would undermine vital work to tackle the attainment gap between children from rich and poor backgrounds, a teachers’ union has warned, and staff working under ‘intolerable strain’ could reach a tipping point where they ‘finally break’.

Council officials are proposing cuts of £7.1m from education as part of a massive council-wide savings exercise forced by a government funding squeeze. A report by officials insists cuts will not affect ‘core teaching activities’ but, in a letter to councillors, Alison Murphy, Edinburgh secretary of the EIS, Scotland’s biggest teachers’ union, says, “Our schools are already chronically underfunded. Please do not labour under any misapprehension that what is proposed here will do anything other than make an already bad situation worse.”

The proposed cuts include a reduction in the number of ‘transition teachers’ who work with pupils as they make the switch from primary to secondary school - long recognised as a time when some children’s learning can dip or even go backwards.

However the report from officials states that these posts are no longer needed. ‘These posts were allocated to provide additional support during the pandemic and can now be removed without impacting on core teaching activities or core support activities.’

@miconm: Heard that Welsh govt has offered teachers an additional 3%. That’s over and above the 5% already offered. Wonder if that’s something we may see in England now?

Counter-extremism workers have warned of a rapid rise in the number of cases being referred to them by schools concerned about the influence of the self-styled misogynist influencer Andrew Tate, The Guardian has reported.

Incidents include the verbal harassment of female teachers and other pupils, and outbursts echoing Tate’s views - which are disseminated and spread mainly on social platforms TikTok and Instagram despite the fact that he has been banned from them.

Frontline practitioners delivering the government’s counter-extremism Prevent programme told The Guardian that he was a factor in cases dating back into last year. Their warnings come amid criticism of a review of Prevent by William Shawcross, which concluded last week that the misogynistic ‘incel’ subculture, whose women-hating adherents have been drawn to Tate, was not a counter-terrorism matter.

@sbm_jo: Working from home day today. Me, my (very happy) dog, coffee machine, budget sheets and peace & quiet. Bliss! #sbltwitter

Dr Tim Squirrell, of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, a counter-extremism think tank, said misogyny of the type peddled by Tate was “falling through the cracks” of counter-extremism policy. “Tate clearly represents a risk of radicalising young men into misogynist extremism, but this kind of extremism is not currently considered for support under Prevent.”

Anger after Redcar lollipop lady removed near school

BBC News has reported that a decision to remove a lollipop lady opposite a school has led to parents claiming that children are now being put at risk of an accident. The patrol, near Coatham Church of England

Primary School in Redcar, was moved to a ‘busier location’ in November.

One parent said she “nearly got run over” as she had to stop cars to help children cross the road. Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council said it planned to reinstate the patrol.

The road, which does not have a pedestrian or zebra crossing, had been covered by the same lollipop lady for several years. However, following her absence, the council struggled to recruit people to patrol and needed to cover areas it deemed busier, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

“It has been suggested we don’t need the lollipop lady as the road isn’t busy enough,” Vicki Spall, who has two children at the primary school, claimed. “However, every day the kids are at risk of accidents because there are no safe crossings around our school.”

Bristol’s spending on special needs education becoming ‘unsustainable’

Bristol 24/7 has reported that the mayor has warned that the huge amount of cash spent on providing expensive special needs education is becoming ‘unsustainable’. Demand and costs for special educational needs (SEN) is rising across the country, with Bristol facing a growing budget black hole.

In an effort to stop these costs spiralling further, the Department for Education has given Bristol City Council £1m to explore what reforms can be brought in. While details of the reforms are not fully clear, they’re expected to begin by this April, affecting thousands of children.

This year, the council budgeted £78.5m for its ‘high needs block’, and next year this will increase to £86.5m - but this is still not enough cash to cover costs; this year’s deficit is expected to be £44m, and growing next year to a whopping £63m.

The expected reforms include increasing specialist places, providing extra funding to schools for early intervention work, and ensuring therapies are good quality.

Sheppey school to be taken over by new academy trust

A school rated inadequate by Ofsted will be taken over by a new academy trust, BBC News has reported. Oasis Community Learning’s board of trustees has agreed to transfer the Oasis Academy in Sheppey to another trust. The decision was made in mutual agreement with the Department for Education (DfE).

Last year, inspectors found pupils using ‘foul, homophobic, racist and sexist language’ at the school, which is the only secondary school on the Isle of Sheppey. A trust spokesperson said the decision was made “with a heavy heart”.

“Despite the hard work of our staff, and the significant investment and new processes that have been introduced at the school, we are sorry that we have not been able to successfully deliver the exceptional education environment that our young people deserve,” they said.

“We will work with the DfE whilst they appoint a new trust and will ensure this process is managed as smoothly as possible for the benefit of the students we serve.”