3:31pm Wednesday 24th June 2009
By Jon Reeve
UNION chiefs are to hold crisis talks about job cuts at a troubled Southampton school.
Support staff have been told up to 16 workers are at risk of redundancy because the number of pupils at Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill is drastically lower than predicted.
The shortfall means the new school is not entitled to so much Government cash, and it has been ordered to cut £400,000 from its budget.
Officials from Unison are worried about the way academy bosses are to decide who loses their jobs.
Support staff including teaching assistants, mentors, technicians and the IT team are currently in a 30-day consultation period.
Two senior teaching posts are also to be axed.
Unison representatives met with its 60 members at the academy yesterday, and are now to hold talks with principal Ian Golding on Monday.
They have been encouraged by news redundancy payments will not be capped, but are worried those volunteering to go may not be allowed to, while others are forced to leave.
Unison regional organiser Andy Straker said: “Support staff have worked very hard to make the academy a success, and there’s a lot of concern and anger about the poor communication from Oasis about what’s happening.
“Oasis is saying it wants to apply a completely new selection procedure, and we don’t believe the criteria is fair because they are assessing people behind closed doors, without the chance for them to have an interview.”
Oasis Community Learning – the charity which runs the academy – declined to comment but Mr Golding has previously pledged that the job losses would not affect the education of students.
Mr Golding said: “Teaching staff will be full to capacity, and children’s education will not be affected. Indeed, there is an excitement about the future here and we are looking forward to seeing the students reach their full potential.
“We are committed to making year-on-year improvements, and we passionately believe we have laid a strong foundation for an even more successful future.”
One of the two flagship schools to open just last September, Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill is struggling because it attracted more than 200 fewer pupils than expected, according to figures leaked to the Daily Echo.
The 878 pupils the academy has this year is well short of the 1,097 Southampton City Council estimated would be attracted to the academy when it was looking for groups to run it.
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