Dear Parents & Carers
A warm welcome back to all our students after Easter. I hope they are well rested and ready for learning, especially our Year 11s and 13s who are now starting their exam season.
This week is a big thank you to all my staff.
Recently, behind our office doors, we have been setting our budget for next year (as an academy, our budget runs from September to August). This is a time of making difficult decisions, trying to put aside the anger at the continued assault on school budgets, and having some very heated discussions with colleagues.
As ever, it is all about cuts. In three years we have had to cut our teaching staff by 11 full-time teachers, leading to larger classes; making the remaining teachers cover their colleagues if they are off sick; making cuts in associate staff, both in the back office and in front line services such as teaching assistants; slashing our ICT budget (let us hope nothing breaks next year) and cutting all departmental budgets.
In the meantime, we are faced with the consequences of austerity on wider public services. We look in horror this week as, due to their own cuts, our colleagues in Children’s Services close yet another case where we judge the child to be at risk, and tell us we need to do more in the child’s home (this is a frequent occurrence I’m afraid). We are educationalists and, whilst I am proud of my outstanding welfare team, they are not social workers and can only do so much. The decision this year which has really caused me to lose sleep is as a consequence of our school counsellor leaving last term. Do we replace our counsellor or invest in support for our students with the most complex emotional needs to help them improve their behaviour? We need both; we can only have one.
However, despite all this, I find myself enjoying evening events such as the Festival of the Arts, concerts and plays. We have trips going out almost weekly, for example next week’s Bushcraft Trip takes 200 Year 7s away for three days, all planned by our staff who will also be away with the students. We have extra-curricular clubs every afternoon, revision classes through the holidays and after school, and during lunchtimes there are always staff working with students to help them with their learning.
The staff here at Myton have taken these budget constraints in their stride and just get on with it. They don’t complain (they leave that to me); instead they focus their attention on the education and development of our students, making sure they not only learn but have any number of opportunities outside the classroom. I am grateful to all the staff here at Myton for keeping optimism and inspiration in the system and washing away the anger at the spin and lack of understanding displayed every day by the Department for Education.
With best wishes
Andy Perry – Head Teacher
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