School heads tell of funding strain
BASIC REPAIRS MIGHT BE BEYOND OUR REACH SOON, SAYS ONE
GATESHEAD headteachers will today get the chance to address Parliament on their claims that school funding has failed to keep pace with rising costs, putting children’s educations at risk.
A petition launched by local head Andy Ramanandi garnered more than 100,000 signatures in just a few months, as parents backed teachers’ demands for higher budgets.
The Department for Education says schools are now receiving more cash than ever before, with a £1.3bn increase for this year and next, and that its recently-introduced national funding formula means money is targeted where it is most needed.
But teachers claim that higher staffing, pension and other costs mean, in real terms, they’ve lost money.
Under the condition of anonymity, three headteachers in Gateshead opened up to The Chronicle about what funding challenges really mean for them.
The first runs a mainstream school which is “fiercely proud” of being inclusive to pupils with additional needs. But as costs rise, this inclusiveness is under threat. Last year, the small school had to find £52,000 to support the most needy pupils.
The budget was stretched even further when the head had to accept more vulnerable pupils from another local school, but, because of the time of year they moved at, didn’t get any extra funding to help support them. The head said: “It is appalling that school funding has reached such a desperate position that previously inclusive schools have talked about being unable to offer places to children with additional needs for no other reason than being unable to afford the support.”
And with all spare funds being ploughed into teaching, basic repairs to the school start to be at risk.
“We don’t have enough money to mend the three main boilers,” the head said.
“This means one boiler has been stripped for parts to keep the other two going over winter.”
The head of one large primary school in Gateshead, which caters for more than 400 pupils, has also expressed concerns.
The school’s budgets are balancing but the headteacher says this is only thanks to the extra Pupil Premium cash that’s meant to directly help children from disadvantaged backgrounds.
The head said: “The problem is that we must use this ‘additional’ funding to prop up my normal school budget. In my school, there are seven members of staff who are being funded through the Pupil Premium allocation who should be funded through the usual school budget.
“These are not additional staff, these are teachers and teaching assistants who are still doing the normal role they have always done.”
And if that money were removed? “My school would be in deficit within two years and redundancies would have to be made.”
A third anonymous head said: “We’ve had to lose teaching staff, which means that the remaining staff are expected to do more but in the same amount of time. We’re asking parents to support us financially more than ever in order to provide the children with experiences such as trips.”
A Department for Education spokesman said: “We recognise schools are facing budgeting challenges and we are asking them to do more. We have increased funding by an extra £1.3bn across this year and next, over and above previous spending plans.”