A FLAGSHIP 3-19 school in Ceredigion is projected to be £509,438 in the red at the end of the financial year, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

Minutes of meetings between staff and governors at Lampeter’s Ysgol Bro Pedr also disclose a cut of 4.58 teachers and an admin post in the school’s primary sector.

In one meeting, headteacher Jane Wyn spoke of “the need to increase numbers of pupils in classes”.

There was also said to be a strong feeling that, while the school had been making cuts for many years, they were not seeing an improvement in their financial position.

At a governors’ meeting on 25 May it was stated that: “A copy of the working budget was distributed and approved showing a deficit of £509,438 at the end of March 2018.”

Chair of governors Rhian Haf Evans said: “It’s a very difficult time for all schools in Ceredigion due to the amount of cuts that we are having to make, whilst ensuring that we maintain the excellent standard of education.

“Our role is to try and ensure that the education of the pupils is not affected because of these cuts but, inevitably, long-term it will be.

“We are working with the teaching unions to try and maintain staffing levels as well as looking at where we can make cuts in the budget wherever possible, but it’s not easy.”

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