Ministers dismiss protest by school heads as row over ‘funding crisis’ grows

THE headteachers’ protest is “ad hoc” and ignores record levels of funding, ministers have said.

Around 7,000 school leaders from across the country have written to 3.5 million parents this week, warning them that schools are facing a “funding crisis”.

They said that class sizes are rising and the most vulnerable students are “bearing the brunt of cuts”.

The Education Secretary has “snubbed” their requests to meet and discuss the issues, they told parents.

The row over school funding has grown increasingly bitter, with the statistics watchdog rapping both the Department for Education (DFE) and the union-backed School Cuts campaign for using misleading figures.

The letter to parents was organised by the Worth Less? campaign, which was set up by a group of headteachers in West Sussex but later grew into a national movement. The group staged a protest in Westminster last September, where they urged the Chancellor to stop treating them as “fools” by insisting schools have plenty of money.

Mark Anstiss, headmaster at Felpham Community College in West Sussex and one of the campaign’s founders, said it was “frustrating” that the officials insist that school funding is “at its highest ever level”.

“That is correct, but there are half a million more pupils in the system now,” he told The Daily Telegraph. “The stealth taxes we have to pay are much more significant.

“There are much higher pension and national insurance contributions, inflation has gone up, and the apprenticeship levy.

“What it translates to on the ground is that I have less than I used to have to spend on teachers and books.”

Siobhan Lowe, headmistress of Tolworth Girls’ School, an “outstanding” rated academy in Surbiton, south London, described how she “cleaned the school, washed the toilets [and] served in the school canteen” because of cuts.

However, a former adviser to the Prime Minister has accused the teachers of “scaring parents” about “cuts that don’t actually exist”.

Will Tanner, director of the think tank Onward and an ex-adviser to Theresa May, said: “There are lots of schools that manage to make do within the existing funding settlements.”

A DFE spokesman said that the education secretary met leaders of unions “rather than this ad hoc campaign”.

Damian Hinds has been making a “strong case” to the Treasury for extra cash for schools, ahead of the next spending review, he added.

“[He] has secured an extra £400million of capital funding for schools from the Treasury, provided an additional £350million to local councils for high needs funding,” he said.

“School funding in England is at its highest ever level, rising from almost £41 billion in 2017-18 to £43.5 billion by 2019-20.”