TWO support staff at a cash-strapped school have been made redundant while others face changes to their work hours and nature of their roles.

The redundancies at Woodbridge High School, in St Barnabas Road, Woodford Green, have sparked fears that children’s education will suffer by stretching teachers too far.

The cuts follow months of negotiations between school management and Unison and GMB unions over threatened redundancies to combat a reported £25,000 budget cut.

Support staff include roles such as learning support assistants and study supervisors who carry out vital tasks which help teachers inside and outside the classroom.

Bob Archer, National Union of Teachers (NUT) president for Redbridge, said: “We’re horrified to learn of this.” “This is just going to increase the difficulties teachers face in getting children through their exams.”

“Parents should be concerned about their children’s education and future.”

The Guardian understands the NUT could ballot its members at the school over strike action if the departures increase their workload significantly.

Unison representative Greta Farian said her members’ jobs were considered safe but that concerns had been raised over changes in their working hours.

She said: “We are looking at reduced hours, change of duties, things like that that we will need to negotiate on an individual basis.”

The two staff will leave in October after working their notice at the start of the new school year.

A council spokeswoman said: “There is a national workforce agreement in place to safeguard teachers' workloads and their time with pupils and the school ensured that this was taken into account when conducting the review.

"They are confident that there will not be a detrimental impact on the children's education. The two redundancies is the full extent of job cuts that the schools is making at the moment.

"The school and the council will continue to seek suitable redeployment opportunities for the staff up until their last day of service We are unable to confirm the roles of those who have been made redundant as we would not want to identify individual members of staff but they are not teaching staff or those who work in the classroom.”

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