JOB cuts and bigger class sizes could be on the way for cash-strapped Penistone primary schools.
That’s the stark warning from a head teacher as schools struggle with an acute funding crisis.
Antoinette Drinkhill, head at St John’s primary, said: “The bottom line is staff cuts and larger classes. It is a very bleak outlook.”
And town councillors are calling for urgent action to deal with the situation, triggered by a new national funding formula.
The problem is sending some schools into deficit and forcing them to make savings.
With Penistone West being particularly hard-hit, heads of the area’s nine primaries are teaming up with ward councillors and officials from Barnsley Council to try to find a way through the crisis. Meetings are being held and the result could be a federation-type approach to school funding.
The scale of the crisis has been spotlighted by ward councillor Dave Griffin who compiled a survey of the primaries.
“Around 70 per cent are asking parents to pay for things which three years ago would have been paid for by the schools,” he said.
“One head teacher even spoke of being chased with final demands. This is rapidly becoming unsustainable.”
Mrs Drinkhill said Penistone did not do well under the new formula, which provides an amount of money per child. Top-ups are then available for issues such as deprivation and having English as a second language.
“We don’t qualify for these top-ups due to the nature of the area,” she said. “We are losing out significantly.
“So far we have not had to make any redundancies, but we are looking at temporary contracts. Staff has been streamlined to a minimum. We are looking to save money everywhere.”
Mrs Drinkhill said heads are to meet in September to consider joint procurement of services and goods.
She hopes the government will re-think the formula and called for party politics to be put aside in dealing with the crisis.
Coun Andrew Millner raised the issue at Monday’s meeting of Penistone Town Council.
“We are working with Barnsley Council to look at extra funding where possible,” he said.
Under the new formula, primaries have been hit harder than secondary schools.
At Penistone Grammar School, executive director Carole Mason said: “We are better off under the formula but not hugely. We are very supportive of the primaries and aware of the challenges they face. They need more funding.”
She said the school was the biggest gainer in the country under the new arrangements. “But only because we were also the lowest-funded when it started,” she said. “For us it has been a welcome relief in the short term but I am not sure about the future. We still have issues to address. Costs are increasing all the time.
“Schools in areas like ours are struggling. Our primaries do an amazing job and they need to be able to focus on the job not be worrying about paying bills.”
