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TEACHING jobs are to be axed at two Bolton secondary schools.

Hayward School in Great Lever is to lose 12 staff members, seven of whom will be teachers. At Withins School in Breightmet, four teachers will go.

Education chiefs say the move is to address a budget deficit at Withins - which is more than £100,000 in the red - and falling pupil numbers at Hayward. Withins says there will be no compulsory redundancies and Hayward also hopes to make the cuts through early retirement and voluntary redundancy.

Union officials claim the cutbacks are in preparation for the schools becoming academies. Barry Conway, secretary of the Bolton-branch of the National Union of Teachers, said: "If rolls are getting smaller, so should class sizes, which is a good thing. Smaller rolls should not mean staff cuts."

The Government's academy programme is designed to raise standards in deprived areas. Whitehall contributes about £25 million to an academy's development, while private organisations put up £2 million.

Schools with academy status are taken out of council control and the private organisations have a big say in how they are run.

Mr Conway said: "It seems that local authorities are increasingly willing to bend over backwards to placate the private companies involved in academies and present them with a streamlined organisation which has no problems with regards to staffing and money.

But the headteachers of both schools affected by the cuts deny that the redundancies are connected to the academy plans.

At Hayward - which will become an academy in September - it is the second consecutive year of job losses. In 2007, six members of staff were made redundant.

Headteacher Jenny Coleman said the fresh round of cuts would not affect children's education and were nothing to do with the school's academy bid.

She said: "Last year the school managed to reduce staffing due to falling roles, without any compulsory redundancies.

"This year, the situation is similar. A number of voluntary early retirement and voluntary redundancies have been agreed which means any compulsory redundancies will be kept to the bare minimum.

"It is hoped that through an ongoing staffing review and redeployment opportunities, the reduction in staffing needed will again be achieved without compulsory redundancies."

Withins School is £104,543 in the red and a campaign by staff against plans to turn it into an academy is under way.

Following union negotiations there will be no forced redundancies, with the cutbacks being made through staff taking early retirement.

Withins School headteacher Phil Mather was also keen to stress the job losses were not related to the academy plans.

He said: "We have a duty to make sure we spend public money wisely. We have negotiated with unions and the loss of posts will not impact on the curriculum or affect children's education."

Margaret Asquith, director of children's services for Bolton Council, said: "At this time of year, headteachers at all schools are managing their budgets and where necessary, will make changes."

She said that redundancies at Hayward - which Bolton Council will co-sponsor as an academy along with the business trust Essa- were unrelated to its plans, adding: "Hayward School has been experiencing falling numbers for some time and any changes that are taking place at the school now are as a result of this, rather than anything else."

10:46am Saturday 17th May 2008

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