THE HEADTEACHER of a top secondary school has moved to reassure parents after it announced teacher and support staff numbers are to be cut this year.

The board of governors of Wootton Bassett School confirmed that the number of teaching and support staff will be reduced by less than 10, including four redundancies – only two of which are teachers.

But headteacher George Croxford said it would not affect standards at the school, which last year became one of the only school’s in the country to be given a top rating in every category of its Ofsted inspection.

“It won’t affect teaching at all,” he said.

“Teaching will be at the same level and parents should not be concerned. Teaching staff have not been lost from core subjects and we have altered our curriculum slightly.

“In fact we have taken on another modern foreign languages teacher as a result. The situation is very fluid as it is in all schools.”

A statement from the chairman of governors, Malcolm Wilford, read: “This decision comes after close examination of all income sources and close scrutiny of all expenditures.

“In the spring last year, when setting the budget for 2010/11 it was recognised that forecast income would not support the previous levels of expenditure. Throughout the year close attention was paid to maximising income and reducing expenditure to levels not previously experienced at Wootton Bassett School.

“The latter was achieved by strict controls on all expenditure and reduction of staff through natural movement. We have reached year end without incurring a deficit, the target set in the budget.

“This lead to early questioning of income levels anticipated for 2011/12. We have applied for academy status but after taking into account anticipated academy income, we would still not be able to support the levels of expenditure incurred in 2010/11. A full review of expenditure was undertaken with the conclusion that after pruning all other expenditure we would need to reduce staffing costs and to a level that would require compulsory redundancies.

“All staff were invited to a briefing given by the headteacher where the various factors leading to the potential deficit were outlined. Then or in subsequent briefings details of the process to be used in the staff reduction programme were outlined.

“We wish all staff that leave us this year success in their future career and say a sincere ‘thank you’ for their good work in their time at Wootton Bassett School.

“This coming year and probably next will be difficult economically but the governors are confident that despite these forced changes the school will fully maintain its commitment to delivering the curriculum and to providing an outstanding education for its students.”