Schools trips could be scrapped in bid to save jobs amid rising costs

Rising staff salaries, coach costs and energy bills are forcing schools to look for savings

Schools have been particularly hard by rising energy costs and teachers are having to find savings as a result. (PA)

Schools may have to scrap trips out for students and halt music lessons as they battle rising costs, it has been reported.

Headteachers told BBC news that school trips would have to be cut before they considered reducing staff.

Schools have been hit particularly hard by rising energy costs and teachers are having to find savings as a result.

One head teacher, Jayne Bartlett, said that she was unsure whether her school’s yearly trip to Bletchley Park could go ahead.

She was worried that poorer pupils would be significantly impacted if they weren’t able to make the trip, which helps to teach students at Shenley Academy, Birmingham, about Second World War code breakers.

“They are students whose parents cannot afford to take them to museums, to art galleries, to places like Bletchley Park or to travel abroad to different country to experience the culture,” she said.

Some pupils are likely to drop out of private music lessons as parents juggle rising bills (PA)

But rising coach costs are putting the trip in doubt, she said.

Ms Bartlett also said that pupils were likely to drop out of one-to-one music lessons due to the cost of living crisis.

“These lessons... are invaluable. But they are incredibly expensive, as you can imagine. It’s unaffordable for parents,” she said.

Vice-president for the National Association of Head Teachers union, Simon Kidwell, who is also a headteacher at Hartford Manor primary school in Cheshire, said that his school was likely to be in £80,000 of debt after staff pay rises this year.

He is looking at making savings by reducing swimming lessons to half a term for most pupils and cutting back on school trips.

“We may be looking at restructuring some of the teaching staff as well, ultimately, if we can’t get some help from the government with the pay rise,” he added.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, told MailOnline this week that “it is likely that we will see cuts to curriculum options, larger class sizes and reductions in extra-curriculars such as school trips and the number of teaching assistants”.

A Department for Education spokesman said: “To support schools we are increasing core funding by £4bn this year alone.”