JOBS are being slashed at one of Southampton’s new Oasis Academy schools, the Daily Echo can reveal.

Senior teachers and support staff are facing redundancy at Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill following a drop in pupil numbers during its first year.

Two redundancies will come from the academy’s leadership team of senior teaching staff and the rest will be support staff.

The Daily Echo understands pupil numbers have fallen from 1,000 to 800 since Christian charity Oasis took over running the merged former Oaklands and Millbrook secondary schools in September last year.

In a statement, the academy said it could not confirm how many redundancies there would be, as it depended on the outcome of a 30-day staff consultation and whether any staff applied for voluntary redundancy.

It also refused to state how much money it needs to save.

Schools are allocated a set amount of money per pupil by the Government, meaning a reduction in pupil numbers leads to less cash. Pete Sopowski, a Hampshire representative of the National Union of Teachers, said: “This has all come about because the academy has not been as popular as expected.

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It’s as simple as that.

“I am very sad that staff are going to be made redundant because the academy messed up their sums. The business plan for the academy was wrong. It relied on having x number of pupils and hasn’t got them.”

Academy principal Ian Golding said: “We are very disappointed that we are having to make people redundant, particularly with the economic climate we are in.

“However, as an academy family, we are not only seeking to keep these numbers to a minimum, but also looking to assist those who have been made redundant find new employment, either in different roles within the academy or elsewhere.”

New Southampton City Council Cabinet education chief, 20-yearold Councillor Paul Holmes, said: “This is a very unfortunate situation.

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The council is committed to supporting Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill in its decisions, and will continue to support staff and students to ensure that all our children receive the best standard of education we can provide.”

Oasis Academy Lord’s Hill is one of two academies that taken over by Oasis. The other is Oasis Academy Mayfield – an amalgamation of the former Woolston and Grove Park schools – which has been dogged by problems including pupils going on the rampage in protest at the way the school was being run.

The crisis culminated in the shock resignation in November of principal Ruth Johnson – who was criticised by unions for running the academy like a failing school – and the news that scores of teachers had handed in their notice to quit.

Eleven pupils have been expelled from Oasis Academy Mayfield since it opened in September – almost three times as many as any other school.