Staff shortages highlighted by BBC report

The BBC has reported that special school pupils around the country are not getting the education they are entitled to due to national recruitment shortages. A special school in Oxford had notified parents in May that partial closures would be required as they felt that opening fully would have a “high health and safety risk” due to staff not being available.

This reflects the statistics around staffing in schools and pupil numbers and the fact that the government have only met 50% of its teacher training targets for this year for secondary schools and two thirds for primary. Special schools are hit hard by the cost of living as they require so many teaching assistants and learning support assistants to support pupils. This was highlighted by NEU General Secretary Mary Bousted, when explaining why teachers are striking this week, who strove to get across that pupils’ education is at the heart of the strike. From early indications in the National Association of Head Teachers ballot are that they will, for the first time in their history, vote for strike action as some heads insist that schools are reaching ‘crisis point’.