A FAILING Bournemouth primary school will lose three quarters of its teaching assistants when redundancies take effect next month, it has been claimed.

Shocked staff at Elmrise Primary in Kinson heard this week that hundreds of support staff hours will be axed from next term.

They fear the drastic cuts will mean classroom-based assistants at the Holloway Avenue school will be reduced from 23 to just six.

The school was placed in special measures earlier this academic year after government inspectors ranked it as inadequate.

They concluded the school is “failing to give its pupils an acceptable standard of education and the persons responsible for leading, managing or governing the school are not demonstrating the capacity to secure the necessary improvement”.

One teaching assistant, who did not want to be named, told the Daily Echo: “A lot of the assistants have been there for more than 20 years and we are going to have to fight each other for six jobs.

“We are all suffering because the finances have not been managed properly. And this will have a bad effect on the children.”

Dave Higgins, branch secretary at Bournemouth Unison, said the consultation was being carried out at “breakneck speed” and he urged a rethink.

“It’s a significant chunk and it’s very hard on these individuals. They’re not that well paid staff, on an average of £10,000 per annum, but often they can be a key income earner in their families.

“It will also affect the teachers’ ability to give a proper education to their children,” he said.

The school has just over 300 pupils.

A statement from Dr Annetta Minard, executive head teacher, said: “Elmrise School has entered into financial difficulties. My job over the next year is to maintain and improve the education for children whilst we take the school out of its financial deficit.

“We will not be making cuts to qualified teachers but will have to make some cuts to the number of support hours in areas such as administration staff, lunch time assistants, as well as teaching assistants.

“This is the first stage of consultation and we have held face-to-face meetings with all support staff to explain that redundancies are inevitable and that as part of the process we will deploy staff to other areas where possible.

“I would like to reassure parents that my top priority is to make improvements to education and to bring the school out of special measures.”