Heads ask parents to protest at funds cuts

LAST-DITCH PLEAS TO GOVERNMENT

Reporter DESPERATE head teachers are making last-ditch pleas with parents and politicians to save their school budgets.

North East School leaders have asked their MPs to intervene with government, as they predict massive shortfalls in budgets over the coming years.

Meanwhile, heads of schools in Gateshead, Sunderland and North Tyneside are writing letters to parents, urging them to protest.

According to the National Audit Office (NAO), across the country, schools will need to find an extra £3bn by 2020 to continue offering their current services. That’s because a number of unavoidable costs will go up, with no extra money to cover them.

While just over half of schools will see slight budget increases due to a new system of funding, the overall amount spent per pupil countrywide isn’t increasing, so campaigners say these cost rises aren’t being addressed, even in schools which benefit under the new system.

For individual heads, this can mean facing changes such as fewer GCSE options, shorter school days, and fewer teachers.

Howard Kemp, head of Farringdon Community Academy, which is set to lose £608 per pupil by 2020, said: “Education is in crisis. We’re being asked to do more with less.”

Dene Marshall, head of Mill Hill Primary School, Sunderland, said it could mean an end to any non-essential “enrichment” school trips.

He added: “The only things you can reduce are your training, your resources, your enrichment activities – all these things have a massive impact on your provision.”

At some schools, the situation looks even more stark. Claire Smith, head of Hill View Infant School in Sunderland, said strict government regulations mean it’s not possible to increase class sizes at infant schools above one qualified adult to every 30 pupils.

With 80-85% of most school budgets going on staffing, and rules stopping them from cutting staff, she says many smaller infant schools “don’t have a solution”.

The move followed meetings with Jarrow and Gateshead MPs Dave Anderson and Ian Mearns, and Washington and Sunderland West MP Sharon Hodgson, all Labour, while heads in North Tyneside are set to meet with their local MPs this week.

The teachers say they hope to persuade enough parents to lobby their MPs and make their concerns known so that government is forced to reconsider plans for schools spending.

The Department For Education says it has protected the “core schools budget in real terms” and that school funding is higher than it has ever been. activities, including

ESTIMATED LOSSES TO SCHOOLS BY 2020