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Camden New Journal - by RICHARD OSLEY
Published: 20 December 2007

Cash crisis school axes mentors

Pupils face larger classes and learning assistants to go as council is urged to help

A budget crisis at one of Camden’s leading secondary schools has led to five learning mentors being laid off just before the Christmas holidays and teachers being told of plans to cut the number of classes.
Staff were called to an emergency meeting last week in the school hall at William Ellis in Highgate Road where a secret document was handed out by headteacher Richard Tanton. It is understood that he outlined the major financial problems the school faces and proposed a series of drastic cost-cutting measures to bring the budget back under control.
Mr Tanton is said to have told teachers and support staff that the school was nearly £500,000 in the red and the debt needed to be cleared within two years.
Penny-pinching such as minimising photocopying costs has been usurped by cards being handed to the five mentors, who help the schools more challenging pupils realise their potential. This is estimated to save the school around £125,000.
Other savings are due to be made by reducing the number of classes in core subjects – meaning more pupils in each lesson. Learning support staff are also facing cuts to their hours, while the school will be making spaces for extra students over the next two years in order to scoop a bigger grant from the council.
The high-achieving school gained grant-maintained status in the 1990s, giving it greater freedom to set its own budgets and direct the school’s aims. It has become a beacon school for languages, forging links with schools in China, and is part of the successful La Swap sixth-form consortium. Its academic reputation makes it one of the most popular schools in north London.
Recent construction work at the school included building a new gym, computer suites and putting new sports pitches in the playground. The school has also contributed to a new sixth-form wing at Parliament Hill School, which sits next door to William Ellis.
Mr Tanton said yesterday (Wednesday): “The school carried a budget deficit forward into this financial year. The governing body has drawn up a plan to repay the deficit by 2010 while safeguarding standards for all of the pupils at the school.
“The plan is currently subject to consultation and will be explained to parents at a meeting to be held at the beginning of next term.
“Until such time as key stakeholders have had an opportunity to express their views it would be inappropriate to comment further on specific details.”
National Union of Teachers spokesman Kevin Courtney called on the Town Hall to bail the school out.
He said: “The local authority need to help them. They should be given a considerable period of time to pay back the deficit if they need to. William Ellis should not be made to pay this back over a short period of time, so it will not have a disproportionate effect on one group of children.”
Camden education chief Conservative councillor Andrew Mennear said the education department would not wipe out the debt or give the school longer to pay it back. But he did say officers were in talks with the school.
“The school is ultimately responsible for its own budget,” he said.
“We are in a position to approve a deficit, as long as they have a recovery plan in place. We are working with the school to put together a recovery package.”

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