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The latest news and views from the world of education

@ShirleySiAhmed: Schools are making staff redundant in order to balance budgets. I’ve been in the business of school finance for 10 years and I’ve never seen it so bad. Reduced numbers of staff, both in teaching and support roles, will have direct impact on the quality of children’s education

Council unveils action plan to provide special educational needs education

One-in-three young teachers in England skipping meals to make ends meet

The Guardian has reported that one-in-three young teachers in England are skipping meals and spending less on food because their pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living, while others are taking second jobs.

More than 8,000 state school teachers in England were contacted by the National Education Union; the survey revealed that 34% of teachers aged 29 or younger said they have been forced to skip meals to make ends meet, with one-in-five saying they have taken on a second job in addition to teaching full-time.

More than one-in-10 young teachers said they expected to no longer be working in education in two years’ time; excessive workload, a lack of trust from the government as well as pay were among the main reasons for leaving the profession.

“The constant goodwill required in order to do the job is no longer viable. I feel like I’m constantly living on the edge of a breakdown but I have no choice but to carry on. My wage no longer lasts the month and I am constantly overdrawn,” one member reported as part of the survey.

@CherylSBM: Thoughts are turning to #Term5 and what my priorities will be. If I can just locate my magic wand then all the budget worries will be over #SBLTwitter #SBM

A proposal to avert a potential shortfall of hundreds of specialist school spaces for youngsters with special needs in North Yorkshire has been unveiled, Hambleton Today has reported.

The £20m action plan could generate £22m of savings over five years; however, an officer’s report to leading members of North Yorkshire Council states that the authority’s strategy should be ‘to address the most pressing concerns’.

Officers say their best estimate is that the proposed programme would deliver 315 places against the forecast shortfall of 350 places over the next three-to five-years.

The proposed programme is focused on expanding overall specialist places, extending the range of places at mainstream schools, increasing the availability of suitable local pathways to support young people and filling two major gaps in provision across the county.

The report states the programme to expand special educational needs specialist capacity within North Yorkshire comes as the number of pupils with education health and care plans has been increasingly rapidly,

West Bromwich headteacher reseeds school pitch to save funds

BBC News has reported that a headteacher is reseeding her school’s football pitch herself because she says the budget cannot pay for it to be done professionally. Claire Evans, from Eaton Valley School in West Bromwich said “this is just how it is because there is no cash”.

The work would have cost £3,700, using up a large amount of the school’s budget. “I love my school, but I’m cross that I’ve been put in the position of having to do this,” Ms Evans said.

She has enlisted the help of her mother and husband to reseed the pitch.

The school has already had to cut down on specialist coaches for PE, Ms Evans added, and cannot afford to revamp a playground, which she said would directly affect children.

“It fills me with dread as it’s not going to get better; it’s only going to get worse,” she said.

The government has previously said extra funding would take realterms spending on schools to ‘its highest level in history’.

Spotty road leaves residents in Colchester baffled

Giant coloured spots painted on a road have left residents perplexed, BBC News has reported. The markings appeared on Norman Way in Colchester and residents said they were told the ‘temporary street art’ was intended to encourage children to walk or cycle to the nearby school.

Some asked if it was ‘decoration or desecration’ and feared it would, instead, encourage children to play in the street. Essex County Council said it was to make streets more ‘attractive’.

The large red, green, blue and orange spots were “installed as part of the creation of a new Healthy School Street in this part of Colchester”, a council spokesperson said.

Plymouth primary school raises £23,000 to enhance pupils’ school lives

A Dartmoor primary school has raised thousands of pounds to improve the day-to-day school lives of its pupils, the Plymouth Herald has reported.

Tucked away near Ivybridge, in Cornwood village, is Cornwood Primary School. The school has just 83 pupils and, around a year ago, the school PTA - also known as the Friends of Cornwood School - along with many others involved, set out to raise £23,000 to completely update the school’s obstacle course which the children enjoy using daily.

Over the last year they’ve raised a huge amount of money to replace and renew the trail, a climbing obstacle course, which had been in place for more than 15 years and had reached the end of its ‘safe’ life. The course is a big part of the children’s school experience, enabling them to role play and let off steam, but the flooring had become threadbare and slippery when wet.

“In order for such a small school to raise the £23,000 needed for this project we could not just rely on the parents’ generosity“ Maxine Skelley, treasurer of the Friends of Cornwood School, explained. “We held a large range of events which successfully pulled together the children, parents, families and the local community. It just goes to show that, if we all work together, anything is possible!”

“It is part of a package of measures to make the street more visible - to highlight to drivers that there is a school in the vicinity.

“Healthy School Streets are designed to improve streets around schools, especially for children, aiming to make them more accessible and attractive for walking, wheeling and cycling.“

The creation of Healthy School Streets supports our aims to encourage active travel and make Essex safer, greener and healthier.”