When a recession hits, the fallout is felt at all levels of society. Schools are a microcosm of that society and while there may not be the same widespread redundancies that have decimated the financial sector, the ripples have certainly been felt.
Worst hit have been private schools and the true figures showing how many parents plan to pull their children out of fee-paying schools will be revealed after the summer term.
As early as December 2008, local authorities were already reporting sharp increases in applications for state school places from pupils who would normally have gone to a private school. London is worst hit with almost a third of councils saying they have received above average applications. Across the country almost a fifth of schools said they expected more applications during 2009.
Over the last year and a half, around 25 independent schools have been forced to close as a result of the recession. This has meant that hundreds of teachers have lost their jobs. The Association of Teachers and Lecturers predicts that more closures will follow and they are lobbying the government to ensure that private schools have redundancy policies in place to match the state sector, as some are simply paying the statutory minimum.
The government has unveiled plans to nationalise recession-hit private schools by turning them into state-funded academies, which may prove a last chance for some. The schools minister, Jim Knight, said the government would consider applications for academy status from fee-charging schools affected by the downturn in areas where there was demand for more school places. However, the existing academies programme has already led to large-scale redundancies as teachers were forced to reapply for their old jobs, or the merging of schools led to duplication of roles, therefore this is unlikely to provide relief to redundant teaching staff in the short-term.
And the knock-on effect of higher applications to the state school sector will also be detrimental to teachers. Local authority budgets will be stretched tighter than ever and class sizes are likely to get bigger. Schools are already being advised to share teachers to reduce spending in the recession - leading to a greater workload for teachers and fewer teaching posts for those wanting to enter the profession.
Steve Munby, head of the National College for School Leadership (NCSL), believes headteachers will have to come up with new ways of saving money or face having to cut teachers' posts across the board. He told the Guardian. "These are tough times ahead and there will be need for efficiency savings. Schools won't be immune to that. It's going to be tough. At times of austerity we need innovative leadership, otherwise there will be cuts.
"School leaders could consider federating with other schools, joint appointments, such as school business managers or it could be music, language or sports teachers. Joint appointments should become the norm and we want to see schools working much more closely together."
The recession has changed the job market for teaching staff with fewer positions becoming available, even in previously undersubscribed areas such as science and maths. Part of this is due to government initiatives to attract those wishing to leave other jobs affected by - the recession. Bankers and those working in IT have moved to teaching in the hope of finding more job security and greater job satisfaction.
Sarah, a secondary school teacher working in London said of her experiences of the recession.
"It hasn't affected me personally in the classroom yet but I do have friends who have left teacher training and are now finding it very difficult to find a job."
However, it does seem likely that teachers will be affected by diminishing budgets in the upcoming months, not least because the he Learning and Skills Council (LSC) wrote to sixth forms and colleges in April informing them of cuts to their individual budgets of up to £200,000.
The shortfall was not as a result of the recession directly but rather because the government was forced to admit it had miscalculated the number of students who would qualify for a full university grant. It had to reduce the grant package and cut next year's student numbers by 5,000. The outcry from schools forced Schools Minister Jim Knight to make an announcement saying the government would find the funds.
But The Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) and the Association of Colleges have said the existing allocated funds will not cover current numbers, let alone an expected rise. They said this made little sense in a recession, and not least when the government wanted more young people to stay on in education and training after the age of 16.
In the meantime, it falls to teachers to take on an extra burden of work as new staff recruitments are stalled, or to multi-task across different departments as budgets are stretched to breaking point. And some are even finding that the economic crisis has turned them into counsellors for their pupils - and their parents.
Schools Minister Jim Knight told teachers to expect the credit crunch to affect children's behaviour, as they cope with the financial worries back at home. He suggested that teachers and heads could look to provide more emotional support to parents at this time.
"There will be uncertainty for those families going through redundancy, and for those families going through stresses around an uncertain future for their housing," he told the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust conference in Birmingham. "Those stresses potentially, I'm sure - if they haven't already - will start to be reflected in behaviour in schools."
And of course teachers are affected by the recession in a myriad of other ways, outside of the classroom. Many will have family members who have lost their jobs and children of their own who will be finding it difficult to afford further education or to find their first employment. Those with houses and savings will have found the value of both plummet in recent months, making even an exit from teaching even more difficult.
Meanwhile, teachers are likely to be facing below-inflation pay rises again this year and further job insecurity. Unfortunately, the teaching profession is no more immune to the recession than any other and yet the demands placed upon it continue to rise.
