SCHOOLS in Swindon made 11 teachers redundant last year, according to figures obtained by the Adver.

Two posts went at Churchfields Academy, six at St Luke’s School, two at Brimble Hill Special School and one at Drove Primary School.

Three of the posts lost at St Luke’s, along with one at Churchfields, had to go because funding for the role stopped.

The other jobs were shed due to restructuring.

No further details were given in information provided by Swindon Council after a request made by the Adver under the Freedom Of Information Act.

The number of teachers and classroom assistants losing their jobs is likely to rise this year, partially due to Government cuts and changes in funding intended for the poorest students.

Churchfields warned in March that due to a re-allocation of grants to help the poorest schools it would have to make up to nine teachers redundant.

It has so far not given any information about the outcome.

Swindon Academy is in the process of shedding up to 15 teaching assistant posts, blaming public sector cuts and over-staffing.

The figures for 2011 represent 69 out of 77 schools that use the council’s HR services.

The most redundancies were made at St Luke’s which caters for children with behavioural, emotional or social difficulties.

However the school, in Cricklade Road, announced a number of new appointments in its spring 2012 newsletter.

Both the council and Coun David Renard , the cabinet member for children services, said the redundancies were a matter for the schools to comment on.

Only one school which made cuts in 2011 answered our request for comment from the Advertiser this week.

Jane Cordes, the headteacher at St Luke’s, said she took pro-active measures to avoid having to make more cuts in the future as a result of diminishing budgets.

She said: “I took over in January 2011 and took steps to restructure, having seen the way the budgets were going, which is downwards.

“This was to ensure that the budget we would get for 2011 to 2012 would be sustainable.

“Had we not done that last year there might have been lots of redundancies this year.

“We had to be proactive as, along with other special and mainstream schools, we are faced with a three-year decreasing budget.

"As a result of the interventions I hope to retain the staff we currently have. “It was pro-active planning and we will do the best with what we have got.

“We have the tagline ‘arrive with the past, leave with the future’ and we will do whatever we can to ensure that happens for every child.”