Plans to cut school jobs blamed on falling birth rates

Job cuts are set to be made at a primary school impacted by falling birth rates.

The cuts at Ditton Primary School in Widnes, Cheshire, are being proposed by Warrington Primary Academy Trust.

The trust confirmed it would be restructuring its teaching assistant (TA) team, with the aim of reducing current numbers by September.

A trust spokesperson said the move was part of a strategy to eventually reduce the size of the Liverpool Road school in anticipation of falling birth rates, the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) said.

TAs support teachers by managing classrooms, preparing materials, and providing targeted support to pupils.

The LDRS has been told the numbers may be cut from 16 to nine - although these figures have not been confirmed by the trust, with chiefs saying they did not want to "pre-empt" the outcome of a consultation process.

The trust said it was not reducing pupil numbers, but expected them to fall naturally over time, with the school expected to go from a two-form entry with provision for 321 pupils to a one-form entry with provision for 230 pupils by the end of the decade.

The trust's chief finance officer Seamus O'Dwyer, said: "This is not something we ever wanted to do, but pupil numbers are being affected by a falling birth rate, which is an issue affecting primary schools across the country."

He confirmed that on Monday staff who are impacted were informed that a consultation process would run until the end of the summer term.

Staff would be able to indicate whether they wanted to apply for voluntary redundancy or be interviewed for one of the remaining roles, he added.

"We launched this process earlier than we needed to so that colleagues had more time to look for other opportunities," he said.

"Support for Ditton pupils will not be affected by this change as additional support in all the classrooms has been planned for."

A consultation is also due to take place over plans to turn Westfield Primary School in Runcorn into an academy and for it to then join the Wade Deacon Trust.

The trust would then seek to merge Westfield with its Weston Point Primary Academy on a single site big enough to accommodate both schools.

The issue of falling numbers has been replicated across the country, with The Education Policy Institute (EPI) estimating it could result in the closure of up to 800 primary schools across England by 2029.

But unions like the National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) have called for schools to be kept open and for surplus capacity to be used to reduce class sizes or expand Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) provision.

Warrington Primary Academy Trust was formed in 2016 and consists of nine schools spread across Warrington, Widnes and Frodsham – with Ditton becoming part of the trust in 2019.

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