Staff pay back wages to help reduce school's deficit

Staff at a Leicestershire school are set to hand back one day's wages to help reduce their school’s £38,000 budget deficit.

Teachers, cleaners and support staff from the Ashby Church of England Primary School in Ashby de la Zouch will donate a day’s pay to the school this Friday to raise awareness of their plight. The move has been dubbed ‘Pay Back Day’.

According to the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ASL), the school’s cash crisis has deepened to the extent that a number of support staff are expected to have their contracts terminated from the end of this term. This, says ASL, is alongside further cuts, including the funding allocated for staff training, supply cover and library books.

The ASL also said that that the primary school puts their £38,000 shortfall down to a number of factors, including SEN funding, grants for key stage 1 class sizes and increased staffing costs.

ASL member Jane Stevenson, who is a teacher, governor and library co-ordinator at the school, said that staff felt they had "no choice but to dig into their own pockets to ease the school’s funding crisis".

“As teachers we decided to do something to improve our situation and on July 4th we will be handing back our day’s pay to school funds to help pay for the basics that this government’s funding system does not provide," she said.

“We decided to donate a day’s pay back to the school in order to buy some of the necessities that this year’s budget cannot provide. This is in addition to the hundreds of pounds worth of resources that we have been buying over the years. In effect, we as professionals are funding what the government is depriving the children of. Leicestershire is the lowest funded county in England. Does this means that our children are worth less than children in any other county?"

The school has also received support from David Taylor, MP for Leicestershire North West, who has also agreed to donate a day’s pay from his own salary in support of ‘Pay Back Day’.

(GMcG)