By Gavin Mackintosh-
A primary school in Surbiton school is facing reduced hours over planned budget cuts. Grand Avenue Primary School is worried that the education of its pupils will suffer if it has to reduce its hours of teaching. The school organises a variety of events throughout the year including Christmas and summer fairs.
It has a big swimming pool, financed and maintained by Grand Avenue, with the school uses to ensure each child receives a swimming lesson for twenty weeks every year. Swimming is one of the lessons pupils at the school enjoy, and parents of its pupils say the school creates an environment that makes learning exciting.
However, the schools Parents Association (Gaspa) are preparing to present a petition signed by 626 people to Kingston Council. The petition calls for the council to “fully consult with headteachers and respect the decisions they make” and “not further reduce our school budget”.
Last financial year, the petition states, £17,189 was taken from Grand Avenue Primary and Nursery School’s budget, and that this year the council is asking it to cut further by up to £61,408.
The petition states: “Staff have worked hard to find savings where possible and we are at a point where savings of this scale are impossible without a reduction in staff and/or schooling hours.” The petition will be debated by councilors at a meeting on Tuesday, July 17.Council officers have prepared a report in response blaming the cuts on financial pressure on school budgets directly on increasing demand for high needs services , like for children with special educational needs or disabilities.
The issue of budgeting for schools is a problem of demand. Increased capacity calls for additional budget to fill in those extra demands, forcing local councils to cater for the rising numbers of pupils joining other schools. Schools in the Uk are independent with lots of decisions regarding the allocation of budgets made locally. They have a lot of autonomy in relation to the allocation of budgeting, and are expected to mange their budgeting accordingly. Grand Avenue primary school say restricted funding will compromise the quality of education they are able to provide their pupils. They intend to lobby the Uk government heavily to provide more funding, but some critics of the schools response say primary schools are expected to make savings.
Schools and the council met and decided to move £300,000 from schools’ general budgets to fund children with Education Health and Care Plan, in order to fill in some of the financial gaps. The Uk government has provided a £3 million advance from the government has also been negotiated to help fill the gap, while longer term solutions are found.
The report claims that after high needs funding has been redistributed, Grand Avenue School has been given £39,000 more in 2018/19 than last year, representing a per-pupil rise of nearly 2 per cent, and pointed to the £316,529 in the school’s reserves.