Registration classes could be scrapped by a local authority, as it explores ways of relieving huge pressure on its finances.
Falkirk Council has proposed doing away with the traditional registration class as a relatively pain-free way of saving money - but teachers have warned that it would mean the loss of a crucial part of schools’ pastoral care.
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At a meeting of the council’s education executive today, members explored a number of proposals for saving money in schools, including the scrapping of registration periods to save £693,000 over a year and remove the need for 16.7 full-time equivalent staff to cover them.
However, a teacher representing the secondary at the meeting today warned: “If we remove registration, what we will be doing is removing the first line of guidance.”
Fiona Craig said that having registration classes guaranteed a point of contact for every secondary pupil at the start of every school day, during which registration teachers could deal with absence notes and check on attendance.
“Pastoral staff will often meet with pupils at that particular point,” she said.
Ms Craig said there would also be concerns about the impact on learning and teaching over the rest of the school day if issues were not addressed during morning registration.
The council had suggested that the school online service Seemis could take up the administrative burden vacated by registration classes, but Ms Craig said that Seemis “tends to go down” at times