Colchester St John's Green Primary School to make staff redundant

St John’s Green Primary School, which has one site in Abbey Field and another in St John’s Green, is feeling the effects of rising gas and electricity costs.

School bosses are having to contend with eye-wateringly expensive bills.

According to documents seen by the Gazette, St John’s Green’s current fuel outlay is £36,000, but it is predicted to rise by £119,000 to £155,000 next year.

Salary increases for teachers and support staff have also eaten into the school’s budget at a total cost of £100,000 due to not being funded by the Government.

Without also considering the additional cost of inflation, this means the educational institution is now set to be £219,000 worse off.

As a result, school bosses “with huge regret and a heavy heart” have now been left with no choice but to look into making redundancies to balance the books.

Simon Billings, headteacher said: “It is an absolute tragedy and a horrible situation for our school to be in – it will have ramifications across every department.

“We have always been conscious of the fact our funding is to provide education to our students but now I have less staff and I cannot provide the same services.

“Even having prudent financial management does not matter when you are facing these types of rising bills. Something has to give.”

Last year the Government pledged to allocate a share of £500 million to schools and colleges in England to help them “save on bills and manage energy consumption”.

Governors at St John’s Green, however, say they have not received any additional support from Downing Street and if they had, they might not be in this situation.

Mr Billings added: “I appreciate how cross and angry many people are with regards to this and the lack of funding that has brought about our current circumstances.

“But, as it stands, I cannot make the situation better and there will be no easy way to mitigate the situation for our children, the staff of the school and our parents.

“I can only say we have a dedicated and committed school team and the school will continue to ensure we give our utmost to our children.”

Sam McLean is a Labour Colchester councillor for the New Town and Christ Church ward, in which St John’s Green Primary School is located.

He said any schools having to axe staff due to being unable to afford soaring energy bills is “a gross failure of modern civilised society”.

Mr Mclean added: “A school having to cut staff to cover cost of energy whilst energy companies take home record profits is a gross failure of modern civilised society.

“A national crisis should never be allowed to harm the education of our children and should never be allowed stunt their chances to reach their full potential.

“Local school pupils are already suffering the consequences of underfunding, where schools can’t afford to pay a living wage for teachers unless severe cuts are made.

“I and the community I represent want assurance our children have a bright future ahead of them, but fewer and fewer have any faith in the Conservative Government. 

“They have had 13 years and ten education secretaries, but have made zero progress.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "We understand the pressures schools are facing at the moment due to the challenges of recession and high inflation.

“That’s why we are investing £2 billion into our schools next year and the year after. This will be the highest real terms spending on schools in history totalling £58.8 billion by 2024-25.

“On top of this we’re supporting schools with rising costs through the Energy Bill Relief Scheme and Energy Bill Discount scheme, as well as £500million for energy efficiency upgrades to help keep bills down in the future.”