THE deputy headteacher is among staff at a Bournemouth school who have been made redundant.

Bethany Junior School, in Knole Road, has dropped eight staff in total. As well as deputy Steve Cottrell, whose role also covered neighbouring St Clement's and St John's School, the Daily Echo understands those leaving include admin staff and four part-time teachers.

However, according to our source the school has hired a new business manager on £70k a year.

The two schools now have their own headteachers and assistant headteachers, and have appointed five new teaching assistants.

In a letter to parents Bethany headteacher Lawrence Woodward said: "Everyone at Bethany CE Junior School is very sorry to be losing these members of staff and would like to thank them all for the enormous contribution they have made over the years to the school. We wish them every success in the future."

Stephen Orman, executive headteacher for the Ocean Learning Schools group, which includes both, said the job losses were a consequence of increasing financial pressure.

"It has been reported nationally that schools are feeling the impact of government spending cuts," he said.

"In many schools this has resulted in staff redundancies and Bethany Junior School is no exception.

"Schools are unable to sustain year-on-year reduction in funding and carry the cost of inflation, national insurance, pension and national pay increases.

"The National Audit Office and the Institute for Fiscal Studies warn of a £3 billion funding gap resulting in schools facing an eight per cent real-terms budget cut. This is not sustainable.

"The recent government announcement of more funding for schools is not additional money to the education pot, so we wait to see the real impact of this. Schools will do everything possible to ensure the quality of children's education is not affected."

Back in April, the National Association of Head Teachers warned that schools in England were facing a “perfect storm” of pressures that could have severe consequences for children.

General secretary Russell Hobby said schools were facing “unacceptable levels of financial pressure”, with an association survey showing that 72 per cent of headteachers believe school budgets will be unsustainable in two years’ time.

“This is a result of the Government’s choice to freeze spending and keep it at 2010 levels for each pupil. The 2010 cash isn’t going as far as it used to. You can’t expect it to. But the Government is flatly refusing to admit the reality.”

Ministers have argued that school funding is at record levels, and that this will increase further as pupil numbers rise.