Probably the most difficult part of my job, this year, which included standing in front of a class for the first time in eleven years, a building project, solar and rainwater harvesting project. Communion and Confirmation choirs, land purchase, job-sharing issues and two alleged assaults. I started about five months ago and finished about two months ago for the teachers and only last week for the auxiliary staff. The main issue for me was that the salaries are paid by the school and there are many sources:
Column A: Professional Teaching Staff
Column B: Teacher/Teacher Aid/Library staff
Column C: Admin Staff
Column W: Wellbeing funding
Column S: Discretionary funding
LNSLN: Special Ed
SIP: I forget!
GRG: General recurrent grant
OTHER:
We had a large class leave as well as pupils who left during the year. This along with a small number of enrolments for next year meant that there was a% reduction in all the funding.
Column A: Professional Teaching Staff
Column B: Teacher/Teacher Aid/Library staff
Column C: Admin Staff
Column W: Wellbeing funding
Column S: Discretionary funding
LNSLN: Special Ed
SIP: I forget!
GRG: General recurrent grant
OTHER:
We had a large class leave as well as pupils who left during the year. This along with a small number of enrolments for next year meant that there was a% reduction in all the funding.
This Year Next Year
Column A: 7.75 7.06
LNSLN: 0.43 Reduced
SIP: 0.24 Reduced
GRG: 0.27 Reduced
OTHER: 0.08 Reduced
TOTAL: 8.77 ?
Looking at Column A which is the main teacher allocation there was a reduction of 0.70
This year we had 6 Mainstream Teachers and 4 part-time teachers: so I was left with a choice of going to five teachers with a lot of ancillary support or staying with six and having very little ancillary support. Both required reductions. Both impacted on two temporary teachers.. There was also a % reduction in other areas. So plenty of goalposts and they were all moving. So I went with five and a half teachers and the plan was to have a sixth in the mornings for literacy and numeracy and five in the afternoons for the rest. I had almost weekly consultation meetings with all staff. It was very hard trying to make sense of the fractions and percentages. Some of the money can be spent on salaries or resources or SNAs. I was then left with the job of telling a teacher that there would be no job for her next year. Because of the consultation meetings they were all aware of the situation but it did not make it any easier. Going for five and a half meant that I saved 0.40 on a part time mainstream teacher and was left to make up the other 0.30 from the rest of the Special Ed and teacher release time cover. Most of the part-time teachers had hours reduced. At least at home things are more cut and dry. You can give out about not having the numbers or having to wait another year for a teacher but it is outside your control. The same with SNAs-you can blame the SENO! Here the choice is mine I had to decide to have smaller numbers in classes at the cost of Classroom Assistant support. I also had to look at the posts of responsibilities and there was a danger of having to reduce them as the finances dictated. During this time I had daily meetings with the teachers concerned and weekly consultation meetings. Hugely time consuming, as were the daily complex emails to Mark to make sure I was not creating a mess for him when he came back. I also had to make phone calls to the ‘Cuddling Consultant’ and other principals, to tease out things that were unclear in the emails. AS well as teaching positions I also had to find funding for the secretary as the fund that paid her was also reduced. The caretaker was going on 32 weeks long-service leave so I found the extra money there! The funding for Special Ed only came last week so that could not be sorted until then. Principals here like the system because it gives them great flexibility and allows for much creativity but it did my head in. Come back September returns, all is forgiven!
LNSLN: 0.43 Reduced
SIP: 0.24 Reduced
GRG: 0.27 Reduced
OTHER: 0.08 Reduced
TOTAL: 8.77 ?
Looking at Column A which is the main teacher allocation there was a reduction of 0.70
This year we had 6 Mainstream Teachers and 4 part-time teachers: so I was left with a choice of going to five teachers with a lot of ancillary support or staying with six and having very little ancillary support. Both required reductions. Both impacted on two temporary teachers.. There was also a % reduction in other areas. So plenty of goalposts and they were all moving. So I went with five and a half teachers and the plan was to have a sixth in the mornings for literacy and numeracy and five in the afternoons for the rest. I had almost weekly consultation meetings with all staff. It was very hard trying to make sense of the fractions and percentages. Some of the money can be spent on salaries or resources or SNAs. I was then left with the job of telling a teacher that there would be no job for her next year. Because of the consultation meetings they were all aware of the situation but it did not make it any easier. Going for five and a half meant that I saved 0.40 on a part time mainstream teacher and was left to make up the other 0.30 from the rest of the Special Ed and teacher release time cover. Most of the part-time teachers had hours reduced. At least at home things are more cut and dry. You can give out about not having the numbers or having to wait another year for a teacher but it is outside your control. The same with SNAs-you can blame the SENO! Here the choice is mine I had to decide to have smaller numbers in classes at the cost of Classroom Assistant support. I also had to look at the posts of responsibilities and there was a danger of having to reduce them as the finances dictated. During this time I had daily meetings with the teachers concerned and weekly consultation meetings. Hugely time consuming, as were the daily complex emails to Mark to make sure I was not creating a mess for him when he came back. I also had to make phone calls to the ‘Cuddling Consultant’ and other principals, to tease out things that were unclear in the emails. AS well as teaching positions I also had to find funding for the secretary as the fund that paid her was also reduced. The caretaker was going on 32 weeks long-service leave so I found the extra money there! The funding for Special Ed only came last week so that could not be sorted until then. Principals here like the system because it gives them great flexibility and allows for much creativity but it did my head in. Come back September returns, all is forgiven!
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