We hear a lot about how we’re coming up to a year since we were first faced with the issue of coronavirus in schools. What we hear less of is that we’re also approaching the end of many schools’ financial years - and that’s when the costs of this whole sorry year are going to become very clear.
We need to be frank about this: with each other, with parents and - perhaps most importantly - with politicians. Plenty of people will presume that the government’s reliance on schools to support the nation would also have been reflected in levels of additional investment, but that perception could not be further from the truth.
The limited pots of funding made available to schools have focused on opening during the Easter and half-term breaks last spring, or on schools with huge levels of absence last autumn. Those pots are welcome indeed, but they fall far short of meeting the needs of schools to cover their growing costs.
Coronavirus: The mounting costs for schools
Back as early as February last year, we were investing in additional hand soap and sanitiser, not to mention the huge quantities of paper towels required. At that point, we thought the coronavirus was something that might exhaust itself by Easter and would soon be a distant memory.
By contrast, schools’ costs have just continued to mount.
Through the goodwill of staff and careful management by leaders, many schools were able to open for key workers over those holidays with minimal additional staffing costs, but there were still other implications.
The parlous state of education funding over the past decade has meant schools are increasingly forced to rely on earned income to balance the books. But holiday bookings for hall and facilities use had to be cancelled - and so it has remained for almost a year now.
Whether it’s hiring out the school hall to the WI every now and then, or substantial lettings of gyms, classrooms and dining halls for evening classes seven nights a week, the losses are mounting. For some schools, the lost income this year might equate to the costs of a teacher next financial year - costs schools can ill afford to meet otherwise.
Not business as usual
Even reopening hasn’t meant business as usual over the past nine months. When increased numbers returned to schools in June, premises teams had to spend substantial sums in some cases to make their buildings Covid-secure. Schools were ready to play their part, and to make arrangements to ensure that children could return to school safely, but such arrangements don’t always come cheap.
Signage, markings, barriers and shelters all cost money - money that schools weren’t expecting to spend. Add in the additional staffing costs for staggered breaktimes, complex dining arrangements and coordinating transport, and once again it adds up.
Come the autumn, a full reopening of schools didn’t mean a return to normal costs, either. Again, staggered timetables and premises costs continued to stack up.
And, soon enough, these were compounded by covering for staff absence. First because of testing delays, then because of increasing numbers of positive cases, supply costs for some schools went through the roof as they tried to maintain a going concern. Cleaning costs alone place a huge burden on school budgets, and with no further support from government.
So, a year on from the arrival of the dreaded virus, words of thanks from politicians are welcome. But what schools really need now is the funding to plug the huge holes it has left in our budgets. Otherwise, any sense of catching up over the coming years will be lost to trying to break even.
Michael Tidd is headteacher at East Preston Junior School in West Sussex. He tweets @MichaelT1979
