Seven schools could shorten days to save money

Seven schools may have shorter days in a bid to save money following government cuts.

Dave Baker, of the Olympus Trust, has said that government costs are at “crisis point”, the BBC has reported.

The Olympus Trust runs one secondary, one all-through school and five primary academies in Gloucestershire. Baker wrote to parents of these schools to warn that decisions could be made in September as a result of funding problems.

Ideas to save money include shortening the school day as they cannot afford to pay staff to teach lessons for a whole week, and other proposals include cutting teaching and support jobs and increasing class sizes while reducing the curriculum.

The letter also stated that parents may be asked to make financial contributions to help with school funding.

The government recently announced that there would be a change to school funding and the Department of Education (DfE) stated that the current system was “unfair, opaque and outdated”.

The DfE believes that the proposed changes could see more than half of England’s schools receive more money.

However, Kevin Courtney, chair of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), said that all schools in England will have less money in real terms per pupil in 2020 than they do now.

He continued: "This cash they talk about doesn't keep pace with spending pressures on schools.

"The proposals Mr Baker has mentioned are terrible and none of them should happen, but parents deserve to know the truth about the position schools are in."

The consultation on the new formula runs until 22 March 2017.