School too small to keep teachers

A SECONDARY school cannot afford to hire experienced staff because it is not big enough.

Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge in Sonning Common is losing an estimated £1million a year in government funding because it has only about 450 pupils when it should have 600.

The school, which is part of the Maiden Erlegh Trust, has lost 13 teachers since 2022, although its teacher-to-pupil ratio is slightly better than the national average.

The trust has since recruited 15 new teachers and last year introduced a policy of replacing staff with less experienced teachers where possible.

The former Chiltern Edge School in Reades Lane was taken over by the trust in 2018 after receiving an “inadequate” Ofsted grade and being threatened with closure.

Since then, it has improved and was rated “good” in its most recent inspection two years ago.

Jonathon Peck, who is chief executive of the multi-academy trust, said he was trying his best to get a good deal for the pupils. He said that following the covid-19 pandemic the school had struggled to maintain staff.

Mr Peck said: “We did have a really stable workforce during the pandemic but post-pandemic, there has been a higher-than-average attrition of teaching staff.

“They stuck with the school through the pandemic and once it was over decided to fulfil their ambitions elsewhere.

“A good number have left to seek promotion elsewhere. Clearly, in a small school, the opportunities to get into middle leadership roles or senior leadership roles are fewer than they might be in a bigger school.

“Teachers who want to advance their careers have no option really but to look elsewhere. I know that at least two relocated back to where they were born and they’ve gone with our best wishes.

“Inevitably, some teachers will arrive, understand the unique challenges of running a small school, where it’s necessary to wear many hats, and might want to leave for an easier life.”

The school currently employs 29 teachers and has a proportion of 16.2 pupils per teacher compared with the national average of 16.8.

Mr Peck said the size of the school roll was costing it £1 million a year in funding.

“The obvious challenge that we’ve got is that Chiltern Edge is a small rural school,” he said.

“The Department for Education generally wouldn’t approve a secondary school to open unless it had consistently above 120 children per year group.

“We don’t have 120 students per year group in any of our years.

“We should have around 600 students to make it financially viable. We are currently at just over 450, so there is an inherent challenge in running a small, rural secondary school because the funding that we get is based on the number of students we’re teaching.

“If we assume we’re funded at a rate of, let’s say around £7,000 per student, and we’re 150 short, we’re talking near on £1million of funding that we’re not getting. That’s funding that we can’t use to spend on teaching staff and curriculum.”

A rise in staff absences and what Mr Peck described as a “lean” staffing structure means the school struggles on days when it is understaffed.

On one occasion it was reported that due to staff absence, a class of 60 pupils was taught science in the school hall.

Mr Peck said: “The unique challenges that affect a school as small as Chiltern Edge is that you have to operate on a pretty lean staffing structure.

“If there is sickness absence, it can mean that you have to be innovative in how you deliver lessons on any given day.

“Particularly in a small school where you have small departments, one or two absences in that department has a significant impact.

“And what we’re finding is that since the pandemic, there is a general uptick in staff absence days.

“We’re also finding there are challenges in the supply of supply teachers. It’s difficult to attract staff.”

A year ago, the trust wrote to its staff to say that in order to try to rebalance teaching costs it would look to appoint new staff on the main pay scale whenever possible.

Mr Peck said that in general across the trust the workforce comprised more senior and experienced teachers, which was hard to maintain with its current level of funding.

He said: “Of course, the more experienced your workforce, the more expensive it is to maintain.

“The issue is that the funding that we get from the Government assumes that our demographic is more normally distributed.”

Mr Peck said that 75 per cent of the teaching workforce across the trust’s schools were on the upper pay scale or leadership pay scale.

He said: “On the one hand, that means we’ve got a very experienced teaching staff, which means the children get a really good deal. The drawback is it’s not affordable in the current funding environment.

“The letter that went out to all trust staff last year was to essentially let our team into the secret that we also have a responsibility for long-term financial governance and what we can’t do is do nothing.

“It’s not a firm policy but, where possible, we would look to recruit more from the bottom end so that we can rebalance the demographics of our workforce.

“We take a really good look at our staffing structure right across the board to try to make sure that it’s as financially efficient as possible and that the kids are getting a great deal.”

Mr Peck said that despite Chiltern Edge’s lower levels of funding no department budget had been cut and the trust was planning significant investment in infrastructure over the coming year.

He said: “The department budgets range from £385 up to £4,000. The way our budget-setting works is that we have our department heads basically ask for what they need to spend money on.”

He said the trust had invested more than £3 million in upgrading the school’s buildings and infrastructure since 2018.

Mr Peck said: “When we inherited the school, it was pretty dilapidated. There had been underinvestment in the fabric of the school over a considerable period of time.

“We understood that when we agreed to step in and save the school from closure, it meant making it a safe and engaging environment to work and learn.

“The entire roof has been replaced and, I think, 80 per cent of the windows.

“We’ve upgraded the ICT in terms of cable servers, end-user devices and printers and we’ve upgraded gas systems to the science laboratories.

“We’re currently upgrading the kitchen and canteen to make it fit for purpose.

“We’re going to be upgrading all the toilet facilities and the flooring needs to be replaced.

“We will upgrade all the classrooms, on a rolling basis, to make sure that, you know, the carpets are good, the furniture is fine.

“All the specialist labs will be upgraded as well. Food technology laboratories need to be upgraded, as do the remaining science labs.

“There are other things, for example, tarmacking the car park that need to be done.” The whole heating system and the electronics also needed upgrading, which would be expensive, he said.

Last year, the trust applied to build 50 homes on an area of its playing fields to fund improvements.

However, the proposal was rejected by South Oxfordshire District Council, the planning authority.

Mr Peck said: “It has delayed things inevitably. We are currently going through a process to resubmit an application later in the year.”

The trust, which currently runs eight schools, is to open a new school in north Reading called the River Academy in September.

The secondary will be run by Andy Hartley, former headteacher at Maiden Erlegh Chiltern Edge.

Mr Peck said that it was “entirely reasonable” that the trust would first look to its existing workforce to develop the new school.

He said: “In terms of whether we’ve overstretched ourselves, we’ve got excellent skills and experience of opening new free schools in house.

“The Department for Education wouldn’t have awarded us the schools if they didn’t believe that we had the capacity and expertise to open it successfully.”

Mr Peck conceded that the new school could impact pupil numbers at Chiltern Edge but it was too soon say to what extent.

He said: “Early indications are that the majority of children who have applied for a place at River Academy live south of the River Thames.

“There will inevitably be some families who might live north of the river and might otherwise have chosen Chiltern Edge but have instead chosen River Academy.

“We appreciated that there might be some impact but we need to really see how the admissions numbers play out because they’re far from final yet.”