SCHOOLS across Colchester could have to cut staff in a bid to balance their books to avoid plunging hundreds of thousands of pounds into debt.

The warning comes as one of the town’s primary schools which is rated as outstanding by Ofsted announced plans to make a teacher and two learning support assistant roles redundant.

A planning-focussed teaching post will also be lost at Hamilton Primary School, while part time teaching roles will be amalgamated into full-time jobs.

The proposals are in a bid to save the Constantine Road school at least £375,000 by 2020.

Simon Billings, headteacher of St John’s Green Primary School, yesterday warned more schools could follow.

He said: “When schools are being asked to trim their budgets, then it has to have a knock-on effect. Money doesn’t grow on trees.

“Schools are now faced with looking at their biggest costs and their biggest costs are staff.

“A lot of schools are going to be in the situation whereby they have got to look at their staffing costs.

“All schools are facing financial pressures and all schools will be having to make difficult choices moving forward.”

He added: “The long and the short of it is there are pressures facing schools because budgets have effectively remained the same.

“Schools haven’t lost money - that’s true in one sense - but your costs, and your hidden costs, have increased.

“Schools budgets are not going up with inflation, in fact, they are not going up at all.

“If your staff progress on the pay scale - as you would hope and expect them to do - then that has an increased cost. It’s not just costs in terms of salary but others, such as national insurance and pension contributions.

“Then you have utilities seeing a percentage rise every year. The same financial pressures, which households are seeing a re also affecting schools.”

In line with Mr Billings’ warning, a consultation document sent to Hamilton Primary School staff, which has been seen by the Gazette, bosses has blamed rising inflation due to leaving the EU, a lack of Government funding and rising staff costs as teachers’ careers progress.

Hamilton School headteacher Nick Hutchings said: “Schools are currently operating in difficult financial conditions.

“Our budget has not increased over the past five years, while our costs have increased significantly as a result of factors, such as increased pension and national insurance contributions, the apprenticeships levy and inflation.

“With that in mind, it is more important than ever we make the most effective and efficient use of the limited funding available to us.

“I would like to reassure parents we remain committed to ensuring our pupils receive the best possible education and the impact of any proposed changes at the school will always be carefully considered.

“We are currently consulting with staff and unions about a potential restructuring at the school, but it is important to emphasise no final decisions have been made.”

A 14-day consultation with staff has been launched. If the cuts are approved, they will come into force in September.

Jerry Glazier, general secretary of the National Union of Teachers’ Essex division, said: “Virtually all schools in Essex and Colchester are being affected by this.

“Hamilton actually isn’t as badly affected as other schools but it is still losing about £209 per pupil.

“We are trying our utmost to put pressure on the Government to be more honest about its funding methodology.

“Unless they do something, schools will be cutting teaching and support staff. It is a serious issue and anyone who thinks otherwise is deluding themselves.”

It comes as thousands of pounds was spent recently on new computers for the school.

It is a move Mr Hutchings said was necessary to allow children access to the curriculum.

In the consultation blueprint sent to teachers, Mr Hutchings said it was not possible to save the cash by looking at other departments because not enough was spent on them.

'£20m extra funding will help bad situation'

ESSEX education bosses have said Colchester schools could gain from changes to education funding.

The Department for Education has drawn up a new formula which will see more than 9,000 schools in England lose funding with money moving from London and other urban centres which have been well funded in the past to those in areas which received less money in the past.

County Hall education bosses say they expect a £20million boost from the change.

However, it is not yet clear which schools could benefit.

Essex County Council currently spends £660million a year on education.

Ray Gooding, councillor responsible for education, said: “The Government’s proposed new funding formula aims to ensure the level of funding received by each school is fair and relative to the needs of its pupils, taking into account levels of deprivation, pupil attainment, additional needs and other key factors.

“We want children from all backgrounds to get the best chance in life and welcome the introduction of a fairer, more transparent system.”

Mr Gooding added: “It is important to stress the new funding formula remains subject to the outcome of a second phase of consultation.

“We recognise schools in some areas would experience a reduction in funding but illustrative figures show funding for Essex schools would increase by £20million with 72 per cent of the county’s schools standing to gain.”

The new formula is designed to stop inequalities which see schools in different parts of the country receive different levels of per pupil budget.