Teachers at three York schools face compulsory redundancy as their schools struggle to balance budgets hit by falling pupil numbers.

Michael Peters: "very few schools affected"

A further four schools have been forced to consider shedding staff - and still more contract jobs are on the line, union leaders warned.

Noel Hulse, secretary of the City of York association of the National Union of Teachers, said all seven had notified trade unions of possible redundancies - the largest number to do so in any year since the City of York Council began.

He said three had nominated teachers for compulsory redundancy.

"The overall funding from the City of York Council for school budgets has been maintained and has covered inflation," said Mr Hulse, "but for some schools this has not been enough to protect staffing when pupil numbers have fallen."

Cai Mallett, chairwoman of the governors at Fulford Cross Special School confirmed that a teacher had been nominated for compulsory redundancy there.

The other two schools involved are believed to be Hob Moor Junior School in Acomb and Derwent Junior School in Tang Hall.

Mr Hulse said: "There may well be further job losses through non-renewal of fixed-term contracts before the end of the year.

"This has caused a great deal of anxiety for staff in the schools concerned. Experienced, successful teachers are affected through no fault of their own.

"Voluntary options to resolve the situations are limited: redeployment depends on schools with vacancies volunteering to appoint a teacher from an over-staffed school. I would like to see all York schools co-operating in this to assist the schools in difficulty."

Michael Peters, director of educational services for the City of York Council, said: "A number of schools are going through the process of looking at their budgets and confirming where they need to make any redundancies or if they need to bring temporary contracts they have to an end.

"There are very, very few schools affected across the authority as a whole because of the way in which we funded schools this year. Schools budgets have increased by eight per cent.

"There are more than 1,500 teachers, not to mention support staff, so this is a very small number.

"What we do is work with individuals who may lose jobs because of redundancies and look at other schools which may be increasing the number of staff. We match these teachers against vacancies that come up and ask governing bodies to consider these people first."

He said the council offered advice and help to schools on financial planning.

janet.hewison@ycp.co.uk

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