ALMOST 1,000 people have signed an online petition set up by parents urging the South Bank Multi Academy Trust to stop a 'brutal attack' on the wages of teaching assistants and other support staff.

The 'stop the pay cuts' petition claims the Academy Trust is 'threatening to tear up their (tesching assistants) contracts and change them from salaried staff to being paid term time only'.

"This represents a cut of thousands of pounds to the wages of some of the lowest paid staff in schools," the petition adds.

"This is particularly abhorrent during a cost of living crisis. We demand that this proposal is abandoned."

At the time of writing, 934 people had signed the petition - and the number was steadily rising.

The academy trust, which operates six York schools - Millthorpe, York High, Carr Juniors, Knavesmire, Scarcroft and Woodthorpe - declined to comment when approached by The Press, and instead referred the newspaper to an earlier statement.

In that statement, it said it was facing 'significant challenges' with its budget due to energy costs and the 'recently agreed unfunded pay increases' negotiated nationally.

"We absolutely agree with the pay increases, and are implementing them in full, we are also of the opinion that they should have been properly funded by the government, which unfortunately they are not," the statement said.

“Therefore, we are faced with making some difficult decisions.

"Some of these measures include, where this is possible, temporarily pausing recruitment for teaching and non-teaching staff.

“In addition, we are also addressing a long-term issue around paid working weeks for some staff, who are paid for 52 weeks per year, but work term time only.

"We are currently consulting on a proposal which will ensure that staff are paid for the weeks that they work, plus, of course, their holiday entitlement.

"Whilst we understand that this is extremely difficult for the staff who are affected by this proposal, it will ensure fairness and equity for all of our staff, in that they will be paid for the hours and weeks that they work."

Teaching assistants who contacted The Press, however, claimed the changes would mean their pay being reduced from about £18,000 a year to about £15,000 a year.

One TA who works at Millthorpe told The Press: "They are ... in effect, not pay(ing) the nationally agreed support staff pay rise and are actively cutting the current salary of some of the lowest paid staff."

One parent who signed the petition, and who contacted the Press on condition of anonymity, said: "There is a lot of sympathy and understanding from parents at what is a difficult time for all schools.

"But we are concerned. Teaching assistants are at the heart of proper learning. They support education in all sorts of ways.

"Parents just want to understand what is going on. How are other academy trusts dealing with these challenges in a creative way? And is there anything that we can do to help? We just want some clarification."

You can view the parents' petition here