Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Fair budget plea by 4,000 heads
THOUSANDS of school heads are urging Chancellor Philip Hammond not to cut budgets.
More than 4,000 have signed a letter calling for fairness over the new National Funding Formula.
The scheme, being finetuned this week, is meant to make budgets fairer.
But the heads’ “Worth Less?” campaign claims a huge postcode disparity.
Jules White, whose Tanbridge House School in Horsham, West Sussex, is one of the country’s lowest funded, said he has cut back on teachers and can’t afford proper cleaners. He said: “It’s desperate. Our GCSE children are in class sizes of 35. I think how well we could do if we were just funded adequately.”
Schools Minister Nick Gibb pledged “every school will see an increase from 2018” – but Mr White believes real-term budgets are being cut by £1.7billion.