Achi news desk-
When did Glasgow headteachers find out about the extent of the cuts that were going to be forced on schools?
The nature of the cuts was not entirely clear until the headteachers’ meeting on 12 March, when Headteachers were asked to work out their staffing requirements for 2024/25. This highlighted that, for most schools, all members of school management teams except the headteacher will be in the classroom full time. In a small number of schools, headteachers may also have allocated class teaching time each week as well.
Questions remain about the formula as it had not been provided to them. They were not clear if this would affect EAL allocations nor were they clear about any impact or change to the way teachers’ non-contact time would be supplied.
So schools know that things are going to change but they don’t necessarily have all the information why?
Headteachers have been told what their staffing changes will be but they do not know the formula used to arrive at those allocations. The full formula has not been shared with them. Obviously, they want to see and understand that formula.
Even without seeing the actual funding formula, do we have an idea of ​​the impact of the cuts the council is currently imposing?
The cuts planned for the coming year will lead to a situation where substitutes and head teachers are in the classroom full time and head teachers will become the front line for any absences. At the moment this work is spread between head teachers and any deputies and head teachers in the school.
Similarly, where there is an event in the school, members of the management team are often called upon to support staff and pupils – this will not be possible for members of the management team who have their own classes to cover, so it will all this falls. to heads when available. Often, these situations require the involvement of more than one member of staff and it is not clear how this would be achieved.
It sounds like this is going to have a big impact on what staff as headteachers can actually do for their staff and pupils?
Inevitably, this will limit headteachers’ ability to do other work, especially when we consider that our members in Glasgow report that they already spend around two pupil days a week either covering for staff absence or providing support one-to-one for pupils outside their classes. . The rest of their working week could quickly be used to carry out these duties previously carried out by other members of the management team.
This makes it much more likely that classes of pupils will be sent home due to the absence of staff or they will be banned following incidents in order to create time and space to develop a sustainable response.
However, the issues do not end there. It is necessary to engage with partners in order to seek additional support for pupils with additional needs. School leaders will have less time available to do this, which will compromise their ability to attend multi-agency meetings and extend the time needed to get support in place. These additional workload pressures also raise concerns about schools’ capacity to respond quickly and fully to safeguarding issues.
And apparently there would also be consequences for work between schools across the city?
The cuts will increase the pressure on the rest of the teaching workforce and support staff as well as the managers. Improvement, development, professional training, and engagement with work outside the school – with other headteachers in Glasgow or working groups for the city – will now be extremely difficult to schedule or justify because they will need to be available in case of absence or incidents.
The presence of headteachers in social work, child protection and multi-agency meetings will become extremely difficult which will mean that working to ensure appropriate support and provision for these vulnerable pupils will also be increasingly difficult.
Obviously this will have been an extremely difficult time for your members. What kind of effect has all this had on them?
Members have faced uncertainty and questions about the changes from staff and parents but have not been able to offer any clarity or additional information beyond what has been reported in the media. The agreed budget is unclear at best. It offers no clarity to the profession or the public about the cuts planned for schools or the impact they will have. Even now, there is no clarity about what exactly schools should or could communicate to parents and there are no centrally prepared communications they can share with staff or school communities.
As a result of this, members report high stress, sleepless nights and talk about looking for other roles below headteacher level or in other local authorities.
