This petition was prepared by Chairs of Governor Associations throughout Wales under the auspices of Wales School Governors – Llywodraethwyr Ysgolion Cymru – Registered charity 1179341.

It is the result of several meetings from representatives of eight Local Authorities - Conwy, Wrexham, Bridgend. Cardiff , Merthyr, Newport, Rhondda Cynon Taf, Vale of Glamorgan.

Welsh Government’s funding for schools in Wales has not kept up with the cost-of-living increases and increases in staff salaries. Many schools have set deficit budgets for 2023/2024 financial year. Those which have managed to set balanced budgets, have used their reserves and have had to make significant savings. More, perhaps most, schools will be posting deficit budgets for 2023/24.

This has a hugely negative effect on children and young people in Wales.

2. A major crisis in Welsh Education Funding

We can speak in general terms about the inadequate funding for schools, but we have gathered information on its effect at the chalkface for one Local Authority is some detail because it is a microcosm of what is happening elsewhere. As an unfunded group, we have no resources to carry out an in-depth study covering the whole of Wales.

In the past, the Vale of Glamorgan has been the lowest per pupil spend on Education for many years, despite spending more than the Standard Spending Assessment suggests. However, in the latest statistics for spending per pupil, the Vale has risen to fifth from bottom behind Newport, Swansea, Bridgend and Monmouthshire, so it represents a good comparator. See www.gov.wales/sites/default/files/statistics-and-research/2023-07/local-authority-budgeted-expenditure-schools-april-2023-march-2024-524.pdf

Appendix 1 is a newspaper report on the Vale of Glamorgan Learning and Culture Scrutiny Committee held on 15^th June. The meeting and presentations can be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOilwribJAE&list=PLzt4i14pgqIEhf6Nqf58QWzDmFZIS6XJO&index=1 . The news report is at https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/education/headteacher-speaks-bleak-future-money-27140929

Three Governors and a Primary Headteacher eloquently explained how pupils and staff in their schools have been negatively affected.

At the Vale of Glamorgan Learning and Culture Scrutiny Committee held on 14^th September 2023, an officer of the Council, presenting the current state of the Vale Education Revenue Budget stated that 21 schools in the Vale have set deficit budgets for 2023/24. Of these 18 have been unable to set three-year recovery plans. The officer confirmed that there is no mismanagement involved and that the Authority does not intend to take over their budgets, although this is their right under the Schools Regulations.

Essentially 18 out of 51 schools in the Vale are unable to discharge their responsibility to provide Education to Welsh Government standards for the amount of funds they have been allocated. There are schools all over Wales in a similar position.

3. The impact on children and staff at Welsh Schools

The impacts on children in Welsh Schools are:

· Reduction in the quality of learning & teaching

· Increased adult/learner ratios

· Health & safety - less adult supervision, for example at lunchtime and breaks

· Fewer support staff, meaning that children with Additional Learning Needs are at risk of not receiving the help they need.

· Larger classes – poorer teacher to learner ratios

· Fewer adults in classrooms putting everyone at risk.

· Fewer teachers – either through non-replacement or redundancies.

· Less maintenance on buildings leading to safety concerns

· Increased stress on Headteachers and Senior staff, leading to increased sickness absence and burn-out.

And at the same time schools are struggling to implement educational reforms

· The implementation of the Additional Learning Needs Act and the Education Tribunal Act 2018 and the increase in numbers of learners with additional needs

· Curriculum for Wales

· New assessment arrangements

· Community Focused Schools

· Well-being of Future Generations Act

· Welsh Language Strategy

· The Equality Act 2010 including accessibility strategy

We urge the Welsh Government to urgently review the level of funding for Education for this and next financial years. Our children deserve the best education and must not suffer through funding cuts.

Attached to this document as Appendix 2 is a snapshot taken in May of the cuts in staffing (teaching and non-teaching) , curriculum, building maintenance etc.

4. Response to Minister’s letter to Petitions Committee Chair

A) The Minister states that funding for schools is the responsibility of Local Authorities, which is somewhat disingenuous. The way funding works is that:

· The Funding Formula for overall Local Authority settlement each year is built up from a large number of detailed calculations, some of which are aggregated to form the Education SSA (Standard Spending Assessment. )

· Because the Local Authority Settlement is unhypothecated, each authority is in theory at liberty to spend as much or as little as it likes on Education as opposed to Social Services, roads etc. For our example, the Vale of Glamorgan for many years has allocated more than the Education SSA.

· Welsh Government compensates for the acknowledged inadequacies of the funding formula by having a large number of grants which are allocated outside the formula, for example, the Pupil Development Grant (formerly the Pupil Deprivation Grant) based on the number of children eligible for free school meals, Grants for teacher professional learning, etc.

· However, Local Authorities and schools are also bound by the School Funding (Wales) Regulations Act 2010, and other regulation which put duties upon then them to deliver a well-rounded curriculum, a safe environment for learning, and many other items such as provision for those with Additional Learning needs (ALN). All this is regularly inspected by Estyn. This is the means by which Welsh Government effectively controls Education spending by schools.

As shown above, a significant number of schools in Wales can no longer meet these requirements within the funding they receive.

B) The Minister draws attention to the need for school governing bodies to have a recovery plan in place should they set a deficit budget. As shown above, a significant number of schools cannot do this.

C) The Minister refers to continuing progress “to reduce workload and the burden on education staff”. This is laudable, but the effect of insufficient funding is to reduce the number of staff – teaching non-teaching – with consequent increase in workload.

5. Conclusion

A representative group of Governor Associations throughout Wales call for a Senedd debate to bring the current parlous state of school funding in Wales to public consciousness.

Welsh Government deals in large numbers and percentages of apparent increases, as outlined in the Minister’s letter.

The reality for schools in many parts of Wales is that have been allocated insufficient money to meet their statutory and moral obligation to educate the learners in their care safely and adequately.

Wales’s education system is going through a period of major change for the better, with welcome Welsh Government initiatives like the innovative new Curriculum and the provision for learners with Alternative Learning Needs, but all this needs proper funding.

Many schools in Wales are effectively bankrupt.

The children and young people of Wales in Wales deserve better. They get only one chance at their education. It needs to be properly funded.

Appendix 1 – Western Mail – Wales Online - Article reporting on Vale Learning and Culture Committee 15/6/23

Head of Romilly Primary School, Barry, in finance warning

17th June

By Ted Peskett - Local Democracy Reporter

Primary School, Barry.

A BARRY headteacher has said the financial pressure on their school was so great that they didn’t have the capacity to give some of their most vulnerable children the support they needed.

Headteacher of Romilly Primary School, Katy Williams, was speaking at a Vale of Glamorgan Council scrutiny committee meeting on Thursday, June 15, which focused on the financial pressures schools in the county were facing.

A report presented to the committee showed that Vale of Glamorgan Council was the most poorly funded local authority for education in Wales.

As with other local authorities across the country, it is facing increased financial pressures and an increasing number of schools in the county are being faced with deficit budgets.

Ms Williams said Romilly Primary School, which is one of the largest in Wales but also one of the most poorly funded, has had to cut down on staff and now can’t run any emotional literacy support for children.

The headteacher also opened up on the impact that deficits at schools across Barry were having on members of staff, adding that it had been making some headteachers unwell.

Ms Williams said: “We have been struggling with a deficit for quite a while and we do have a large deficit.

“The future looks quite bleak for us, but we have done so much already, like making significant efforts to reduce and contain this deficit.”

Ms Williams said the school was about £300,000 adrift each year and was also struggling to afford extra caretakers. The school site, which consists of six buildings, currently has one caretaker.

“We have got to keep the children safe,” she said. “The building needs to be safe and we need to deliver a curriculum, but it is just having a huge impact, as you can imagine, on the pupils and on the staff wellbeing in itself.”

A number of combined factors, including the cost-of-living crisis, an increase in the number of learners with additional needs and new assessment arrangements are coinciding to put more demands on schools in the Vale of Glamorgan.

With the council facing a budget deficit of about £9 million, schools in the county are expected to be left in a precarious situation.

Most schools will post a deficit budget for 2023/24, according to the Vale School Governors Association (VSGA).

With this being the first year that some schools have had to deal with the prospect of deficit budgets, Ms Williams said she was aware of some headteachers who were waking up in the middle of the night and whose mental and physical health was being affected.

Ms Williams said she would have to get rid of five teachers if she wanted to balance the books at the school – something which is not an option.

She added: “That would mean five classes of children that do not have a teacher in front of them. I don’t, believe it or not, have spare teachers that are floating around doing nothing.

“The alternative is it is 10 LSAs (learning support assistants) and I just can’t do that.”

A Vale of Glamorgan Council report on education funds states that the council has the lowest rate of funding per pupil out of the 22 local authorities across Wales, at £6,045.

This is £728 per pupil less than the Wales average of £6,773 per pupil.

The VSGA argues that a fresh look is needed on the Welsh Government’s formula which is used to determine how much each local authority should receive in funding.

Chair of the VSGA, Dr Martin Price said the formula’s use of 1991 census data was “fundamentally absurd”.

Dr Price added: “There have been three censuses since then and Wales is very different from 1991 and it is also different from when the formula was last reviewed, which was around the year 2000.”

A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “The amount of funding set aside for school budgets is for local authorities to determine, the Welsh Government does not fund schools directly.

“This is in line with the Welsh Government’s policy that local authorities are best placed to judge local needs and circumstances and to fund schools accordingly.

“Despite our budget this year being up to £900m lower in real terms than expected initially, we ensured local authorities, who fund schools, received an increase of 7.9 per cent to their budgets compared to the previous year so that they can continue to prioritise school funding.”

The deadline for the agreement of individual school budgets for 2023/24 is June 30.

Vale of Glamorgan Council said another report on education funding would be published in September when the full picture on school budgets for 2023/24 would be clearer.

Appendix 2 - Detailed consequences for schools in the Vale of Glamorgan May 2023

Barry Primary Cluster – snapshot from mid-May 2023

School	Carry forward (tbc) 22/23 £	Final projected figure 23/24 £	Where have cuts been made to achieve this?	Impact of cuts for this financial year	Projected final figure 24/25 £	Projected final figure 25/26
1	33,000	-226,850	· Not replacing member of SLT on maternity leave (reduction of ALN support) · Reduction in teaching and support staff · Reduction in teaching resources including enrichment and school visits. · Reduction in repairs and maintenance budget	· A reduced ALN offer – impact on standards and potential increased exclusions and reduced attendance. · Classrooms not as well resourced, quality of learning and teaching compromised. · Reduced curriculum enhancement, including residential visits. · School building will deteriorate	-408,126	-686,400
2	60,000	-21,572	· Reduction in teaching resources including enrichment and school visits. · Reduced staffing	· Classrooms not as well resourced, quality of learning and teaching compromised. · Reduced curriculum enhancement	-164,249	-370,540
3	10,000	-143,553	Not replacing SLT member for summer term Unable to extend short term contracts for LSAs supporting ALN pupils Reduction in repairs and maintenance budget Reduction in teaching resources including enrichment and school visits Removal of general LSA support in PS3 classes	Reduction of ALN support Impact on standards and possible impact on behaviour/ exclusions and ability to offer therapeutic support Enhanced curriculum offer will be reduced School building will deteriorate Lack of additional LSA support in PS3 classes Increased spend on ALN support/Match funding or school funding means less available support for wellbeing/ catch up interventions	313,869	510,035
4	-52,000	-368,072	Reducing the number of LSA’s who support 1-1 pupils from 9 to 5 Intervention LSA’s to reduce Reduction in Repairs and Maintenance budget Reduction in Teaching resources including school visits Removal of Class LSA’s for PS3	Reduction of ALN support Impact on standards and behaviour, increasing the exclusions School building will deteriorate Lack of LSA support in PS3 will impact on standards and behaviour Enhanced curriculum offer reduced	-857,798	-1,404,834
5	£13k balance	-£60k	Reduced building costs to minimum Reducing LSAs – interventions Reducing teaching materials cost centre Reducing Wellbeing support	Reduced interventions for pupils Plans for improving educational setting halted Poorer learning environment Reduced resources to support day – to day lessons Reduce staff to support extra-curricular activities Reduced school visits – less money to support (inc challenges to staff appropriately) Impact on staff wellbeing Potential increase of staff sickness Increase parental complaints	- £115K	-£181K
6	0	-25,000	Not able to employ additional LSA’S to work with individuals Reduced ELSA offer Reduced Teacher resources Reduced maintenance- cancellation of improvements needed to school building Reduced planned admin hours	Very Likely redundancies for 24/25 +25/26	-220,00	-460,00
7	-0	-154,202	· Reduction in teaching resources including enrichment and school visits. · Reduced staffing · Reduction in repairs and maintenance budget · Removal of general and intervention LSA support in all classes	· A reduced ALN offer – impact on standards and potential increased exclusions and reduced attendance. · School building will continue to deteriorate and may lead to further Health and Safety issues · Lack of LSA support will impact on standards and behaviour	-368,989	-650,756
8	£100k	-£195k	Reduction in LSA interventions and those with specific 1:1 support Use of class LSA to cover 1:1 where essential Reduced maintenance of planned projects – decoration, damp, play equipment Reduction in teaching and Learning resources Reduction in planned visits and trips Reduction in cover at lunch time – not replacing MDS	Reduction of ELSA offer Impact to environment including buildings and play equipment Likely reduction in staff (LSA) Reduction in staff release for professional development Reduction in staff wellbeing due to poorer work-life balance Reduction in community resources Reduction in school trips and residential visits because of inability to subsidise	-509505	-827570
9	£100	-£107,053	- 2 x full time LSA’s retiring this year but not being replaced - Family link LSA going back into class · Planned projects to improve outdoor facilities shelved · Cutback to bare bones on many cost centers	Possible redundancies in the future Further cutbacks on support staff which will mean less wellbeing interventions for our most vulnerable children Cutbacks on staff professional development opportunities	-£271,843	-£467,115
10	£50k	-£81.021	Reduction in LSAs 1:1 support Reduction in interventions Planned projects to improve the environment cancelled Reduction in teaching and learning resources Reduction in financial support to families for experiences inc. Day visits and residentials Reduction in budget for professional learning Reduction in teaching staff for the next academic year	Reduction of ALN support and interventions Impact on standards and behaviour, increasing the need for PSPs Learning environments will not be developed further / will deteriorate, Provision for the curriculum will be limited Professional learning opportunities will be reduced, which will impact standards and staff morale Class sizes will increase, meeting the needs of individuals will become increasingly difficult.	-555,997	-920,849
11	£100K	-250,000	No appointment of new staff therefore a reduction in support staff x3 Reduction in teaching materials,	Less learning support for pupils Provision for the curriculum limited Learning interventions limited or even stopped	-190,000	-290,000
12	-44,000	-50,000	Reducing the number of LSA’s who support 1-1 pupils Intervention LSA’s to reduce Reduction in Teaching resources including school visits Removal of Class LSA’s for PS3 Planned projects to improve outdoor facilities shelved	Reduction of ALN support Impact on standards and behaviour, increasing the exclusions Reduction in staff release for professional development Reduction in staff wellbeing due to poorer work-life balance Reduction in community resources Reduction in school trips and residential visits because of inability to subsidise Learning interventions limited or even stopped	-65129	-109523

Penarth Primary Cluster md-May 2023

School	Carry forward 22/23 £	Final projected figure 23/24 £	Where have cuts been made to achieve this?	Impact of cuts for this financial year	Projected final figure 24/25 £	Projected final figure 25/26
1	47,000	-127,925	· Reduction in teaching and support staff · Reduction in teaching resources including enrichment and school visits. · No allocation in repairs and maintenance budget	· New curriculum cannot be fully met without correct funding. · Classrooms not as well resourced, quality of learning and teaching compromised. · Reduced curriculum enhancement, including residential visits. · School building will deteriorate	-261,142	-408,860
2	20,000	-206,850	· Not replacing member of SLT on maternity leave (reduction of ALN support) · Reduction in teaching and support staff · Reduction in teaching resources including enrichment and school visits. · Reduction in repairs and maintenance budget	· A reduced ALN offer – impact on standards and potential increased exclusions and reduced attendance. · Classrooms not as well resourced, quality of learning and teaching compromised. · Reduced curriculum enhancement, including residential visits. · School building will deteriorate	-408,126	-686,400
3	650,000	-400,000	· No sickness cover, · no teaching materials, · no ICT budget, · no trips, · won’t replace worn out minibus	· Pupils sent home, · Lessons less stimulating · No ICT kit replaced · Far fewer enrichment activities	-3,210,326	-6,183,398
4	55,000	-£68,000 Started at -£293,000	· No replacement of Midday Supervisor · Internally replaced Breakfast Club supervisor · Reduction in teaching resources including enrichment and school visits. · Reduction in repairs and maintenance budget · Reduction in hours of Temporary LSA staff working 1:1 pupils · Reduction of whole class music tuition · Proposed income of ANF hours currently being provided through school budget, · Taking on CSC Lead Practitioner roles, school fundraising, hall lettings.	· No meet and greet for vulnerable pupils · ALN pupils with risk assessments would only be able to attend school for the funded hours · Pupils working below expected level will not make progress · Reduced Educational Visits due to lack of staff/ cover · Staff morale and wellbeing due to workload, stress of demands of distressed pupils, facing redundancy. · Classrooms not as well resourced, quality of learning and teaching compromised. · Reduced curriculum enhancement, including residential visits. · School building will deteriorate	-170,000	-320,000
5	estimated £59,000	-58,500	· Reduction in teaching resources including enrichment activities · Reduction in teacher supply costs to provide non-contact time for school improvement priorities · Reduction in ICT hardware · Suspension on maintenance projects due to significant cost centre reductions to offset deficit	· Reduction in learning support staff that would focus on ELSA / Nurture and wellbeing · Support staff to cover staff absences due to increases in sickness scheme costs and costs of cover during excess period · Staff redeployed to cover ALN support due to reductions in LSA staff numbers both on budget & agency costs · Suspension of all internal decoration projects	-186,307	-359,046
6	90,000	-44,004	· Removal of interventions, grants being used to sustain current staffing · Reduction in support staff · Reduction in repairs and maintenance budget	· Classrooms not as well resourced, quality of learning and teaching compromised. · Deterioration of school building · Reduced professional learning opportunities	-181,033	-333,354
7	260,000	-37,550	· Restructure of leadership · Teachers leaving being replaced with NQTs · Training budget removed · Minimal budget for repairs and maintenance	· Leadership capacity diminished- greater workload and responsibilities on other leaders- strategic implementation and school improvement priorities will not move forward- workload pressure for staff · Potential imbalance of experienced and newer members of staff – increased responsibilities for AOLE leadership on others- NQT mentoring and support by leaders already in reduced leadership capacity from leadership changes · Professional learning reduced to staff meetings only- teaching and learning will not move forward- potentially will regress · Building not maintained, not in good condition already so will deteriorate further · Recruitment and retention over time will be affected by the above- increased workload, working in environments that are not maintained adequately	-411,272	-865,825
8	Estimated 99,000	-26,000	· Reduction in support staff. · Reducing teaching supply budget · Reducing support staff supply budget Reducing teaching materials budget Reducing furniture budget Reducing repairs and maintenance budget by £21,000 ·	· · Increased pressure on SLT to cover classes or increased pressure on support staff to cover for absent colleagues. Well-being of staff is a concern.	-230,000	-450,000
9	180,00	-138,689	· Unallocated funds available were due to the amalgamation savings of the Nursery and Primary School. This substantial amount has been used to offset the predicted deficit.	· It is preventing us from developing the outside learning area including a Welsh Pod, Extra learning experiences and activities that will enhance the new curriculum for Wales.	-288,924	-454,032

Rural Vale Primary Cluster Mid-May 2023

A large Primary School

Below is a list of the main impacts identified by the SLT as a result of reductions in School funding. We have approximately 750 pupils in our school.

The School has already made significant efforts to reduce and contain its current deficit by cutting staff and reducing supply cover. This has had a significant impact on workload and provision that can be delivered in the School. We have outlined the main impacts below:

· Since September 2022 we have not been able to run consistent ELSA (Emotional Literacy Support) and since January 2023 we have not been able to run any ELSA interventions. This is because we have redeployed two members of staff who ran these sessions to other roles to save money and try and reduce the deficit. One of these learning support assistants (LSAs) is now a foundation phase (FP) class LSA and the other is used as a higher level teaching assistant (HLTA) to cover classes to reduce supply costs. The Designated Safeguarding Person (DSP) has recently been to a number of Child Protection, Care and Support and CLA (Child who is Looked After) meetings whereby we have had to say that we no longer have the capacity or money to offer these vulnerable children ELSA support.

· In Key Stage Two we have reduced the number of class LSAs to just 2. These LSAs are running support for 540 pupils which is unsustainable. We have a number of children who need support but who we cannot support due to not having a sufficient number of LSAs for KS2.

· We have reduced the number of LSAs in the ALN team to 2 for specialist literacy and speech and language intervention.

· Our Reception Classes have only had 1 LSA per class of 30 since 2020. When Foundation Phase was introduced in Wales, the recommended number of LSAs for Reception was 2 per class of 30.

· When MDS (Midday Supervisors) have resigned/retired, we have not replaced them. There are approximately 540 pupils at one time during lunchtime, meaning our current ratio is 1:54. This ratio is even worse if a MDS is off sick. The senior leadership team (SLT) are used to cover the shortfall but this means they are not available for their other roles during this time or have to work additional hours to make up for work time lost when they are providing lunchtime cover.

· Like all schools we are experiencing a significant increase of pupils with complex needs. Although the School accesses ANF funding, some allocation is not enough to keep certain children, their peers and staff safe. Therefore, to be a fully inclusive school and also to reduce the risk of exclusions, the School has to fund the additional hours from our budget on health and safety grounds. If further budget cuts need to be made exclusions are at risk of rising and we may not be able to meet individual needs.

· The School has been recognised for excellent practice regarding early speech and language provision/interventions. With further pressures to cut spending, this provision will have to stop. The impact of this will be increased behaviour and learning difficulties.

· The School currently has 1 caretaker. The School site is large and the grounds comprise of 6 buildings, a large field and car park. The recommendation for a school of 750 pupils is 1.75 caretakers. This is something we cannot afford and is impacting on the workload of the current caretaker who has recently resigned.

· School office administration - The office staff need additional support. A shortage means we are constantly playing catch up rather than progressing and the workload for those in the office is significant.

· Teaching materials - we have limited stock and staff have to be very creative about activities planned for the children. All stock is low and some staff are buying their own resources for their lessons. One example of a change made several years ago to save money was to ask staff not to print or photocopy in colour where possible as black and white printing and copying is cheaper, but this affects the quality of learning materials for the children.

· SLT are under staffed and although this has been addressed with a temporary placement, the pressure on the existing SLT has been intense. All members of the SLT are working long hours to enable the School to function and move forward. It is not sustainable for their workload and wellbeing but also there is likely to be something missed or dropped because of the many demands on them.

· Provision - many areas particularly outdoors needs to be revamped. Currently it is a struggle to meet the requirements of the Foundation Phase with the provision on offer.

· School trips – The School can only ask for voluntary contributions towards the cost and the School has to cover the gap. More parents are no longer contributing and the School cannot afford the bill so no/very few trips that have a cost attached to them are taking place, meaning many lost opportunities for the children.

If we have to make further cuts, there will be a further significant impact to health and safety, learning and teaching and pupil and staff wellbeing.

A small rural Primary School

In this document, we aim to outline the impact of the consistently low funding allocation to the Vale of Glamorgan Local Authority by the Welsh Government. Whilst Llangan Primary School’s 2022/23 budget shows that the school is one of only a handful of the 40 Vale schools to be achieving a surplus, we have had to make significant sacrifices in order to attain that surplus, which are detailed in the following.

At the time of the last Estyn inspection, in April 2019 (where the school was taken under Estyn Review), Llangan Primary was given four recommendations for improvement which the school has worked hard to complete (with sufficient progress being judged to draw the school out of Estyn Review in February, 2021). Whilst many of the required changes have taken place, the school has had to rely on the goodwill and volunteered time of the (previous and current) headteachers, teachers, support staff, parents and governors. The required levels of CPD, training and external input into the development of the school’s provision have been extremely limited as cover was unaffordable. The school sacrificed two teaching assistants and a trainee teacher, at the end of 2021/2022, as it prepared for the financial constraints ahead. This, in turn, impacted on ALN interventions, KS2 class sizes and a lost opportunity to keep and develop a well-regarded trainee teacher. Consequently, Llangan Primary has been operating with a skeleton staffing structure, with the remaining teaching assistants assigned to support statemented children or carry-out interventions, and therefore there has been minimal general class support. The dire financial situation also informed and encouraged our decision to agree a two-year secondment for our deputy headteacher to another school, with implications for lost senior teacher expertise and strategic support for the newly appointed headteacher.

The development of learning resources, to support all pupil progress and challenge for the more able pupils, has been on hold over recent years due to financial constraints. For example, we would eagerly develop early reading through established and successful phonics schemes, such as Read Write Inc Phonics, and the mastery approach to maths through fluency-building and numeracy schemes, such as Number Sense and White Rose Maths, if the financial constraints would allow. Consequently, the staff and pupils of Llangan Primary are not benefiting from resources and schemes that schools in other local authorities receive automatically. This lack of investment in resources (and associated training) impacts on all pupils’ academic attainment and progress. It also impacts on the highly stretched time of teachers, as they desperately prepare learning material to fill the gaps left by the unaffordable consistent, engaging and professionally-produced successful schemes.

At times within 2022/23, the school has been on the edge of providing a safe learning and working environment, as staff have been reallocated and stretched to thinly cover absence, often at very short notice. This not only impacts on staff security and wellbeing, but also on the clarity of their roles and responsibilities. Teaching assistants have, on average, sacrificed around 25 per cent of their intervention time this year, as they have been required to cover classes and duties. These interventions are invaluable in supporting the achievement and progress of ALN pupils, as well as the mental health of pupils who require support in developing their emotional literacy.

Our headteacher and senior leaders have covered classes, to avoid unaffordable supply cover costs. This has impacted on the school’s strategic development, its ability to engage with external expertise, and in the implementation of a broad and balanced curriculum. Furthermore, senior staff have been unable to develop pupil and parent voice groups as required to ensure effective feedback and the ability to inform future decision-making. Pupil voice groups do now include ‘Digital Champions’ and ‘Health and Fit Committee’ due to the dedication of the school’s staff.

I hope that this outline of the ‘chalkface’ impacts of consistently low funding in the teaching and learning provision of Llangan Primary provokes action on the part of the Welsh Government, as these impacts are being felt across schools in the poorly-funded Vale of Glamorgan local authority. See Chart below showing how the Vale of Glamorgan local authority is underfunded compared to elsewhere in Wales (Source: Statistical Bulletin, Welsh Government).

A Secondary School

Actions already taken to pre-empt budget concerns:

· Senior staff member replaced in the wellbeing team, from Sep 22, a Full time teacher with a large TLR replaced by a non-teaching member of staff.

· Data manager – job not replaced, workload offset onto other staff with some pay increases. However, this has already caused some workload issues.

· Only additional cost of Data Manager leaving was to increase one of the site team from part time to full time to cover WG taking over some of Data Manager job roles.

· Assistant Headteacher in the structure, this person has not been in post for over 5 years, already stretching the leadership team beyond capacity.

· Music subject lead TLR reduced when teacher appointed in Sep 2021.

· English HOD TLR reduced when new Head of English was appointed in 2021.

· DT subject lead TLR removed

· No Associates to the SLT have been appointed this year due to cost and time needed to complete the role.

· TLR’s for jobs in the last 3 years have been employed at the bottom or middle of the TLR range as opposed to the top of the range as was the case previously.

· Lead practitioner roles for English and Maths have not been replaced in the last 3 years.

· 3 U3 teachers have been moved on in the last 5 years. Art/ MFL and English.

· Canteen has been transferred out of school ownership since October 2022 due to the costs this had begun to impose on the school.

· Raided Whitmore/ Pencoedtre/ HMRC offices to get second hand furniture rather than buy new.

· As of August 2022, we had a staff to pupil ratio of 1/16.6. Based on current cuts, we will have a ratio of 1/17.9 from September 2023.

Actions being taken from April 2023:

· Full time Science teacher not having contract renewed for September 2023. This means less sets for Science in KS4 and no capacity for science interventions.

· 0.5 Maths teacher. She left at Christmas, we have to maintain her timetable for the academic year but will not be replaced in September. This will mean less sets for Maths in KS4 and no interventions.

· 0.5 general teacher left at Christmas. Part time teacher added one day to cover music lessons. Other days not covered from September. This has led to one subject form each option column being reduced for Year 10 in September 2023.

· 0.6 general teacher, PE, Skills and Welsh. This role is being removed from September. This means that RE and Welsh will have less sets in KS4 and no interventions.

· English have had to reduce the amount of sets in KS4 due to change of role for SMc and JO having to have more free time due to the ALN act, meaning interventions will also be removed.

· 2 TA’s are retiring this summer. At this moment, although it will be at the detriment of the ALN needs of some of our pupils, they will not be replaced.

· 3 TA’s are on temporary contracts; it is likely we will only keep 2 of them.

· 1 of the TA team has reduced hours from FT to 0.8 from March 23.

· TA hours total 170 this year, reducing to 125 in September.

· SLT TLR’s – Assistant Head to leave August 31st. New role to be advertised on slightly lower scale with LB on a senior AHT scale. This will save £6k in year 1, £4k in yr 2, £2.5k in yr 3, cost neutral yr 4 and £2500 loss in year 5. Over the period it saves approx. £10k.

· Voluntary Redundancy – one member of staff has come forward.