School Closure

[Simcfc73]

The school I've worked at for 20 years is closing.

 

Fulneck School: School which dates to 1753 to close due to "unsustainable decline" in pupil numbers

 

Heartbreaking for staff and pupils is an understatement. 

 

Please no political comments.

[PotNoodleTech]

Yep same happening to me, I've been here 24 years, my only job (straight out of uni).  

 

31st August = terminated contracts.

 

1886 - 2025 RIP.

 

Vitrual hugs.

 

I've never had an interview in my life, when I came here for a visit I fixed 3 pcs whilst we were walking around during the visit and they said please can you start on Sept 1st?  😆

Edited March 26, 2025 by PotNoodleTech

[Simcfc73]

Thanks mate, we are terminating on the 8th July. 

[PotNoodleTech]

That's a bit of a weird date - or were you not 100% full time employed in the school holidays etc?

[tom_newton]

Fulneck is pretty local to me (I occasionally walk down to the Bankhouse pub), so seen a lot of local upset around this (including the inevitable, unwanted political comments).  

 

I remember when you were a Smoothwall user, your school was the first school to use 2 internet connections on one Smootthwall, which was not today or yesterday.

 

If there's anyone I can provide an introduction to in my linkedin network, let me know.

[Simcfc73]

5 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

That's a bit of a weird date - or were you not 100% full time employed in the school holidays etc?

Last day of term. Not sure of the workings as we are in a consultation period now waiting for clarification. 

[Simcfc73]

3 minutes ago, tom_newton said:

Fulneck is pretty local to me (I occasionally walk down to the Bankhouse pub), so seen a lot of local upset around this (including the inevitable, unwanted political comments).  

 

I remember when you were a Smoothwall user, your school was the first school to use 2 internet connections on one Smootthwall, which was not today or yesterday.

 

If there's anyone I can provide an introduction to in my linkedin network, let me know.

Thanks

 

That seems a lifetime ago.. think I've still got the old box somewhere. 

[ITGuyNW]

Sorry to hear this news!

 

My old high school went from 1200 students, sixth form etc, to closing 3 years after I left because numbers went down to 400. 

 

My current occupation had similar numbers 10 years ago and now we are down to 750...it's definitely a fear.

[Syman_a]

There are lots of schools reporting very low numbers for the next academic year. We are a full class down, As are a couple of our other trust schools.

[PotNoodleTech]

13 minutes ago, Simcfc73 said:

Last day of term. Not sure of the workings as we are in a consultation period now waiting for clarification. 

Interesting.  Here it seems teachers are all contracted till Aug 31s,t so so are we.

 

I am looking forward to taking the fries out the fryer in mcdonalds later on in the year 

[6Foot2]

Sorry to hear this. At the school where I worked most recently, we had closure rumours swirling for years, always hanging over us like a dark cloud, though it’s still hanging on for now.

 

There was talk that the land would be sold off for development and, perhaps, some of the older buildings would be retained and converted into "luxury" flats. Hopefully your school's buildings and grounds won't suffer such a fate.

 

[GK1999]

I fear our school will be on the chopping block in the next year or so.

 

G

[3s-gtech]

26 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

Interesting.  Here it seems teachers are all contracted till Aug 31s,t so so are we.

 

I am looking forward to taking the fries out the fryer in mcdonalds later on in the year 

Don't knock it. Ransomware attack? NMFP mate. Turn up, graft, go home.

 

That said, I am very sympathetic to the unease that comes from this sword hanging over any school. I've seen the fallout from poor Estyn inspections doing this too.

 

Good luck to all of you. Keep positive, and remember that you can use it as a pivot outside of the stress, moither and barebones wages of school IT.

[mthomas08]

Sorry to hear about that. Always weird to see school closures... we keep being told not enough schools.. not enough classrooms.. not enough teachers...

 

A school closed some years ago about 10 miles away from me... always weird to me.

 

Our current numbers are slowly going down so it is a concern here too but they hope the recent changes will boost it. We certainly had large numbers attend open evenings.

[Olliedawg]

Sorry to hear this. 

[PotNoodleTech]

32 minutes ago, 3s-gtech said:

Don't knock it. Ransomware attack? NMFP mate. Turn up, graft, go home.

 

 

Exactly!  I am not gonna miss looking after 2000+ devices on a daily basis!  Looking after one or two fryers is gonna be heaven!

[Sephiroth]

To anyone and everyone going through this, you have my sympathies and EduHobNobs! 

 

I was in a middle school in Suffolk until 2013, when the government decided that they were a waste of time and money. I jumped to a nearby upper school (though not in catchment), which became a secondary a year later, taking over a catchment middle as a 6th Form center.

 

Having been on both sides of school closures, it's never easy, and you'll always feel a sense of loss as the ecosystem that you've helped build disappears.

[colly72]

Back when I worked in the corporate world, I was made redundant unexpectedly - it's a horrible time. I've worked at an independent school for 22 years, around 15 miles away from you and our sports teams have regular fixtures with Fulneck - this is devastating to hear.  I think there is a general fear in the independent sector that this is going to be the fate of lots of schools over the coming years.

 

Keep the faith, good things often emerge from the most stressful of times.

[Simcfc73]

I've been doing Premises and IT for the past 4 years so I know the school inside out. The sound of the little ones playing out and smiling is wonderful even in this sad times.  Not sure I want to stay in IT or the private sector due to the worrying times ahead. 

 

Life goes on, kids are resilient .. still sad as flip though

[6Foot2]

2 hours ago, PotNoodleTech said:

 

Exactly!  I am not gonna miss looking after 2000+ devices on a daily basis!  Looking after one or two fryers is gonna be heaven!

 

Another person leaving education:

 

Link: Teaching was too stressful so I left to become a lorry driver - BBC News

 

Quote

Stuart Youens says that when he became a secondary school teacher 20 years ago he loved the job.

 

But gradually the effect of budget cuts, the reduction in classroom assistants, the increase in additional support needs, and a rise in bureaucracy took its toll.

 

Two years ago he chose to leave the profession and become a lorry driver – and says he's a lot happier in his new job.

 

Figures seen by BBC Scotland News suggest that the number of days teachers have been absent because of stress has risen dramatically in the past six years.

 

Unions and education experts say many teachers are leaving altogether as a result.

 

The Scottish government says it is taking action to make sure school staff can access the necessary support.

 

Stuart Youens, 47, from central Scotland, says he taught in a good school but had started feeling dread at the thought of going in to work. He added he needed to get out before he "became bitter".

 

He says teachers need to be able to cope with stress in the classroom, but that mobile phones, challenging behaviour and pupil disengagement have become a growing problem.

 

Stuart says the amount of stress outside the classroom has also risen dramatically due to qualifications and increasing amounts of paperwork.

 

"In my view teaching should be quite a simple job and if you add layers and layers of data collecting and bureaucracy it adds stress," he says.

 

"It needs to be stripped back so teachers can get on with the job. It is a really satisfying job but we need to be able to get on with it without all these huge levels of bureaucracy."

He says he loves being a lorry driver and does not miss life as a geography teacher, even though it paid better.

 

"It is difficult to compare lorry driving to teaching, they are completely different professions," he says.

 

"What I really like about driving is the simplicity. It's just so much more relaxed.

 

"Don't get me wrong there are stressors in any job and there are stressors in driving a big vehicle, but the folk I work with are great and if there is a problem the mechanics fix it.

 

"I've got that simplicity back that I felt I should have had in teaching."

 

There were about 53,000 teachers in Scotland in 2023/24.

 

Questions about the number of teacher absences due to stress were sent to every Scottish council by Reform Scotland, which describes itself as a non-partisan independent think tank and is chaired by former Labour first minister Lord Jack McConnell.

 

It received responses to its freedom of information requests from the majority of local authorities, although a number – including Glasgow – did not respond or only provided the average number of teacher days missed.

 

In the 14 councils which provided data for every year, the total number of days missed by teachers due to stress rose from 30,380 in 2017/18 to 41,629 last year.

 

In Edinburgh, the number has more than doubled over the same period, from 3,594 to 8,879. Angus is among the other areas to have reported large increases.

 

Teachers have told the BBC that their jobs are being made more difficult by increasingly difficult classroom behaviour, higher numbers of children with significant support needs, and cuts to classroom assistants, support staff and overall budgets.

 

Education experts say that having so many experienced teachers being off long-term sick or leaving the profession altogether has a hugely detrimental impact on pupils who will then get ad hoc supply teachers or have to share teachers with other classes.

 

Alison Payne, research director at Reform Scotland, said it wanted to get a better idea of the impact on teaching after hearing anecdotal reports of rising stress levels.

 

She said: "While the different recording methods used by the different councils made it difficult to get a Scotland-wide picture, individual council responses were alarming.

 

Ms Payne said the Scottish government should investigate the issue further.

 

"While the growing number of teachers badly affected by stress is obviously deeply worrying on a personal level, the increasing number of days lost also represents more disruption to learning for pupils," she added.

 

"The figures don't give an indication of whether a small number of teachers have been off for long periods, which may be easier to manage in terms of securing cover, or if an increasing number of teachers are of for small amounts of time, which can be more difficult to plan around."

 

'Making meaningful progress'

Last year the EIS union commissioned research looking at workload and stress. It found that on average, teachers were working more than 11 additional hours a week, unpaid, on top of their contractual hours.

 

A spokeswoman for the EIS said that "soaring" levels of stress and stress-related illness were a very serious concern.

 

"The Scottish government and local authorities, as the employers of teachers, must act in line with their duty of care to ensure that the current crippling workload burden on teachers is lightened."

 

Councillor Joan Griffiths, Edinburgh City Council's education, children and families convener, said she was "saddened" by the absence figures.

 

"The health and wellbeing of the over 3,000 teachers employed by the council is incredibly important to us," she said.

 

She said a range of support and resources were available to help, and that teachers who have concerns about their workload or mental health are encouraged to raise this with their line manager.

 

Angus Council said it recognised the challenges of the teaching profession and had a range of measures in place to support staff affected by stress.

 

A Scottish government spokesperson said it had allocated more than £2m in recent years to specifically support the wellbeing of the education workforce.

 

"Scotland continues to have the best-paid teachers and the lowest pupil-teacher ratio in the UK.

 

"We are also determined to increase teacher numbers in schools. That is why we are providing local authorities £186.5m this year as part of an agreement with Cosla to restore teacher numbers to 2023 levels, as well as freezing learning hours and making meaningful progress on reducing class contact time."

 

The spokesperson added: "Local authorities are responsible for the recruitment and deployment of teachers and headteachers."

 

[PotNoodleTech]

Funny you should mention that I am actually looking at retraining as a lorry driver!!

[6Foot2]

3 minutes ago, PotNoodleTech said:

Funny you should mention that I am actually looking at retraining as a lorry driver!!

 

Funny you should mention that - when I read your reply initially, I read it as:

 

2 hours ago, PotNoodleTech said:

 

Exactly!  I am not gonna miss looking after 2000+ devices on a daily basis!  Looking after one or two tyres is gonna be heaven!

 

😃

[Simcfc73]

I've looked at LGV also.  I drive the school bus on an afternoon taking the kids home so I don't mind it.  We used to have full buses, now about 6/7 which shows how far we have fallen. 

[ElGrandeJefe]

Happened to me last summer, it was announced around this time last year too to staff and parents on the same afternoon, the predicted numbers coming into lower and senior years just made no financial sense to continue, think we were one of the first to blame the incoming 20%, although the nursery was exceptional and always full. I had a very busy end of year and summer wiping devices for students and the school. Also the student numbers will probably plunge now before the end of the school year as parents shift their kids to other schools as soon as they can with other independent schools offering free places until September as an incentive, we ended up with one class with 4 kids in by the end.  The younger ones were more resilient but the senior kids took it hard and it effected them a lot even the the Year 11s taking exams. Other stuff to get sort is exams, what happens with results and also challenges to exam results as this will be beyond the closure date, someone will have to be there for this. 

 

I was there until the final day working in August in a very empty school until security threw me out, expect teachers to want to take every resource they can with them and if your getting administrators in then they'll potentially be a few bargains to be negotiated on if you want anything. I ended up with few things including a 65" tv for very little. I was also very lucky that I found a new role very quickly via friends and walked straight into it on the inset in September. 

[Simcfc73]

3 minutes ago, ElGrandeJefe said:

Happened to me last summer, it was announced around this time last year too to staff and parents on the same afternoon, the predicted numbers coming into lower and senior years just made no financial sense to continue, think we were one of the first to blame the incoming 20%, although the nursery was exceptional and always full. I had a very busy end of year and summer wiping devices for students and the school. Also the student numbers will probably plunge now before the end of the school year as parents shift their kids to other schools as soon as they can with other independent schools offering free places until September as an incentive, we ended up with one class with 4 kids in by the end.  The younger ones were more resilient but the senior kids took it hard and it effected them a lot even the the Year 11s taking exams. Other stuff to get sort is exams, what happens with results and also challenges to exam results as this will be beyond the closure date, someone will have to be there for this. 

 

I was there until the final day working in August in a very empty school until security threw me out, expect teachers to want to take every resource they can with them and if your getting administrators in then they'll potentially be a few bargains to be negotiated on if you want anything. I ended up with few things including a 65" tv for very little. I was also very lucky that I found a new role very quickly via friends and walked straight into it on the inset in September. 

Thanks for the info. The exams bit is interesting which we've discusses. It was mentioned that the exams officer train someone else up for the exams day... ermmm... that's not how it works... I'll show you how the network works also shall I?

 

All out 65" tv's are crappy bush ones.. don't want them.. there is a lovely 75" one but I've measured and its too large for my living room. Really want to keep my work phone too but its a £300 buy out for the contract.