Parents protest against plans to cut 450 teachers

Fiona Sieber-Gordon and Cora Bissett are worried what the cuts will mean for their children

Parents, teachers and pupils have been staging demonstrations in Glasgow over plans to cut teacher numbers in the city.

Glasgow City Council is set to axe 172 teaching posts this year and a total of 450 over the next three years.

A council spokesperson said the education budget amounts to more than half of service expenditure.

Parents who attended a protest earlier this week told BBC Scotland News they were worried their children's education would suffer.

Fiona Sieber-Gordon who has an eight-year-old and a 10-year-old at Battlefield Primary School was one of dozens of parents who gathered outside Langside Hall in Shawlands on Wednesday.

Many are worried the cutbacks will particularly affect the support available for children for have extra support needs.

She told BBC Scotland News: "Both my kids have got additional support needs and I don't think they're going to get the needs met.

"Things are tight as they are. They don't always get what they need at the moment and if you take any more away I think it'll affect everything really, school life and home life too.

"My kids need a lot of connection with a teacher to feel comfortable and safe in school and if they don't have that I think it'll have a huge impact on their mental health."

Cora Bissett, who has an eight-year-old daughter the same school, added: "Even for people who deem their kids not to have additional support needs, you know, the teacher's focus is going to be spread so thinly that every child is affected.

"Teachers are going to be stretched to breaking point and they won't be able to give the kids what the need to excel."

Kenneth Taylor's son will start school as the cuts come into force

Kenneth Taylor's five-year-old son is about to go into primary one at Langside Primary. He has concerns about the impact of changing class sizes from nursery to school.

He said: "So far we've found classes haven't been quite as full and that they've been given quite a lot of contact and consistency with the teachers. We're worried about that being taken away."

He added job security for the teachers was also one of the reasons he was protesting.

The latest demonstration was attended by parents and pupils from several south side schools, including Langside, Battlefield, Shawlands and Tinto primaries.

But the cuts could have an impact on 140 primary schools across Glasgow.

Eleven developing young workforces posts and mentoring services offered in the cities secondary schools could also be affected

Pamela Flynn and Lorna Murray said class sizes are already too big

Lorna Murray, who has a son at Shawlands Primary, said class teachers were already being stretched.

She told BBC Scotland News: "My son's class already doesn't have a classroom assistant and there's 31 in his class.

"That is hard enough, never mind having other children in your class with additional needs or children who are really struggling.

"There will be kids struggling with no other person to hear them. It's just the loudest kids that are going to get heard."

She continued: "The little things that they do extra, they're all going to be gone.

"My wee boy is learning French and he loves it but things like that could go because that's an additional teacher that goes into that class to teach."

Leanne McGuire said they are planning more demonstrations around the city

Protest organiser Leanne McGuire from Glasgow City Parents Group said they were strategically planning the locations of future demonstrations to "make the decision makers listen".

The latest protest was held in the constituency of council leader Susan Aitken, and last week a similar event was held in the Govan ward of deputy leader Richard Bell.

'Bleak picture'

Ms McGuire told BBC Scotland: "We are the city in Scotland with the highest rates of child poverty so when you start stripping away something like education it just paints a very bleak picture for our young people in Glasgow.

"They should be putting kids first. This isn’t just a budget line, this isn’t just a number that they are cutting - they're impacting our young people’s lives and the life outcomes of our kids. Our Glasgow kids deserve more than that.

"The pressure is on the decision makers. Our voices are being heard and our voices are making to all the way to the Scottish Parliament. We will keep it going as long as we need to."

More demonstrations are planned in the coming weeks.

A Glasgow city council spokeswoman said council officers were considering range of proposals to save £108m.

She said: “At every stage we will do everything we can to minimise any impact to schools but in the current financial climate the council must look at every option.

“We know that this will be a worrying time for everyone - for many years education spending has been prioritised, relative to other services, in the budget process.

“However, with the education budget now amounting to more than half of service expenditure directed by the council, it is significantly more challenging to protect education when substantial savings are needed.”