More than half of England's schools planning catastrophic staff redundancies

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1. Schools to cut staff in budget squeeze, union says

2. Thousands of English schools in grip of funding crisis plan redundancies

3. Majority of schools face making catastrophic staffing cuts to stay afloat

4. Most schools facing unavoidable redundancies due to funding crisis, poll finds

5. Council with Scotland's top schools debates very serious education cuts

6. Many schools considering cutting teachers or teaching hours to save money, says boss of teachers union

The largest ever survey of school leaders has found that more than half of schools in England are looking at staff redundancies due to Government underfunding and rising costs, the headteachers’ union has warned.

In a snapshot of the survey which received responses from more than 11,000 school leaders in England, two thirds (66%) of headteachers said they will have to make teaching assistants redundant or reduce their hours.

Half (50%) of respondents said they are looking at reducing the number of teachers or teaching hours.

National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) general secretary Paul Whiteman said educators were being hit by a “perfect storm of costs” as school leaders battled to balance budgets amid “eye-watering energy bills”, spiralling costs and underfunding.

“With no fat left to cut following a decade of austerity, many thousands of schools are now looking at falling into deficit unless they make swingeing cuts. Education is truly in a perilous state,” Mr Whiteman said.