Work ethics
Apart from capital projects, the cost centre that yields the biggest savings is teachers’ salaries, which amounts to 42-55 per cent of general fees. To control these costs, carry out a staff audit, write David and Helen Belchamber
Schools are labour-intensive and, with a few exceptions, teachers are the most highly paid members of staff; they also carry the largest mark-up, in terms of the employer’s pension and NI contributions (an add-on of 26 per cent, as at December 2010).
While that is largely as it should be, fees in recent years have increased to outstrip not only inflation (by either measure) but also earnings. Governing bodies owe it to their parents to ensure that every effort is made by the school to keep fee increases to the bare minimum.
If the finances of the school require major savings, the only way of doing so is to have fewer teachers. The governing body must review teaching staff workloads to ensure that full value is being received.
The decline in boarding numbers
The recession in the 1990s brought a decline in boarding numbers. Some bursars and governors took heart from the opening of a pre-prep that made it appear overall numbers had not suffered too much, although some then wondered why overall fee income had declined.
Problems arose in some schools because the decline in numbers was not matched by a commensurate reduction in the teaching staff. In these schools, the same number of teachers taught fewer pupils and the pupil/staff ratio, which therefore became ever increasingly generous year-on-year, was held up as a major selling point for the school. This, however, should be an act of deliberate policy and not driven by falling numbers.
Pupil/teacher ratio 1999-00 2008-09 Reduction in ratio
Senior day/boarding: 8.2:1 6.59:1 -1.61
Senior day: 11:1 9.56:1 -1.44
Prep day: 11.2:1 9.48:1 -1.72
The reductions in ratios are not huge but, if one assumes the first two categories of schools to number 600 pupils and the prep school 300 pupils, they equate to the addition of about 18, eight and five full-time teachers respectively.
The impact on staffing and overall costs
If one assumes that pupil numbers had remained constant and used the 2008-2009 average teaching costs per member of staff for the same categories of schools, these small reductions in the ratios equate to large additions in overall costs:
Additional teachers Average total teaching costs pa
Senior day/boarding: 18 £975,618
Senior day: 8 £455,760
Prep day: 5 £235,220
These figures are all averages but they should sound alarm bells. If conversely you assume that teacher numbers had remained static over the decade, the drop in pupil numbers for the same examples is even more alarming:
Senior day/boarding: a reduction from 600 to 481 pupils: - c20 per cent
Senior day: a reduction from 600 to 521 pupils: - c13 per cent
Prep day: a reduction from 300 to 256 pupils: - c15 per cent
The impact on workloads
Workloads have been getting lighter year-on-year. Either fewer periods were being taught or class sizes were being slightly reduced – or both. This introduced a certain amount of “fresh air” into the timetable and workloads. Significant savings now have to be made for schools to remain solvent: an audit of teaching staff workloads is the way to achieve this.
The authors of this article have written a Guide to help schools carry out an inhouse audit of teaching workload, available for £100 from www.fismagazine.co.uk/shop.
David and Helen Belchamber are formerly bursar of KCS, Wimbledon and finance bursar of Marlborough College respectively. Tables courtesy of haysmacintyre.
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