A BARNARD Castle primary school has made a member of staff redundant to balance its budget.
Three unions were informed in October of Green Lane Primary School’s intention to let an emotional health and wellbeing worker go as it tried to make up for a £51,000 shortfall in its budget. In a letter to the GMB, Unison and Unite unions acting co-headteacher Nic Linsley said at the time: “All non-staffing costs have been reviewed and where possible reduced prior to making the decision to commence a consultation on a review of the staffing structure.
“The proposals will affect both teaching and non-teaching employees. It is proposed that one employee will be at risk due to the proposals.”
The chairman of the school’s governing body, Revd Canon Alec Harding, said the school had now resolved its “budget situation” .
Alison Hartley, acting co-headteacher, said it was with regret that the staff member had lost their job.
She added: “This is no reflection on the performance of the member of staff and we would like to place on record our gratitude for their service to the school.
“This difficult decision has been taken as a result of a shortfall in our 2017/18 budget and an anticipated deficit for 2018/19, due to reductions in government funding for schools. We recognise the importance of providing emotional health and wellbeing support to all pupils and have plans in place to ensure this continues.”
Meanwhile the school continues to perform well.
A short inspection by Ofsted at the end of last year found that the school continues to be rated good and the leadership team was praised for maintaining quality.
Inspector Sylvia Humble said teachers were “determined to sustain good and improving outcomes for pupils across the school” .
![A COUNTY councillor is backing a campaign to get a pedestrian crossing in Staindrop. Frustrated parish councillors in the village summoned their county council representative Cllr George Richardson to their latest meeting to discuss several issues, including the call for a safe way to cross the A688. Earlier this year their request for a crossing was turned down by the county council’s highways officers. Parish council chairman Jonothan Raper described the reasons for the refusal as “spurious” and called on Cllr Richardson to support their campaign. He added: “One of the arguments they made was there is no clear line of desire when they studied the village – well this isn’t a clear line of desire because there isn’t a crossing, people cross whenever they can. “When the lollipop person was there, one of the things I noticed was people would walk all the way down to the lollipop person to cross the road to go to the shop or to go to the school.” He added a problem of parking at the primary school is exacerbated because people are too afraid to walk their children across the road. Cllr Richardson said he had supported previous attempts for a crossing point with the first being made about 15 years ago. He added: “We went fairly well down the road with that and they looked into it. The only recommended place was where the bus stop is and to get the visibility splays, people on the other side of the road would lose their parking. “That didn’t go down well so it just died a death.” Cllr Raper said he suspected the real reason for the officers’ refusal was the cost of installing a crossing. He added that much of the cost could be recovered from savings made on not having to employ a lollipop patrol. Cllr Raper said: “A lollipop person only provides a benefit of crossing for three hours of the day. You are getting 21 extra hours of crossing time [with a pedestrian crossing].” Cllr Richardson said he would raise the issue with the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Cllr John Shuttleworth.](https://teesdalemercury.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/georgeR-120x86.jpg)
