A LIVERPOOL primary school has ended up in the red after recruiting almost twice the number of teachers it should have.
St Malachy's RC Primary School is the most in-debt primary school in Liverpool according to the latest school balances published by the city council.
It is #117,832 in debt after the Toxteth school decided to take on five extra teachers so children could be put in tiny classes.
For a school of St Malachy's size, with 208 pupils on the roll, they should have seven teachers but there are now 13 teachers at the Park Street school.
A spokesman for Liverpool council emphasised nothing has been decided yet about ways to sort out the school's finances but said they could not rule out job losses.
Headteacher Christine Murphy retired on ill health grounds in December and a new head, Mrs Pat Speed, has been drafted in to save the school's bank balances.
The spokesman said: "We are working closely with the new headteacher and governors at St Malachy's to get its finances out of the red.
"The school is dramatically overspent because it previously split several year groups into very small class sizes - this needed more teachers than are normally employed in a school of this size."
Years one, two and six at St Malachy's have 30 pupils each and each year is split into two classes of 15 with six teachers in total instead of the usual three.
The key stage two class is also split into two with 12 pupils in each class - the average class size is 30 pupils to one teacher.
The spokesman said: "The new headteacher is consulting with staff about changes which have to be made to ensure St Malachy's provides the best possible education for its children while at the same time getting its finances back on an even keel."