Cuts, Cuts, Cuts. Headteachers Tell Of School System ‘that Could Implode’

According to a report from the National Audit Office, schools could see an 8% cut in funding by 2019-20 after the government has claimed to ring-fence this budget. Despite continual pleas from headteachers, they are still being faced with additional costs for national insurance contributions, teacher pensions and the “national living wage”. The National Audit Office has also warned that the cuts may compromise children’s education quality and outcomes. In addition, a £600m education services grant has been slashed, leading to a reduction of money for academies and local councils to use for services like school improvement.

Headteachers are watching the new funding proposals apprehensively, which are expected to be made for schools in 2018-19. They’re apprehensive because the proposal may redistribute funding from inner-city schools to rural areas. Even schools anticipated to gain under this scheme believe that the “extra” cash they receive will not be significant since they will be absorbed by increased costs.

The funding cuts have had a significant impact on support staff in schools too. For example, some schools have had to cut back on speech therapy for primary school children. Many children are on risk assessment because of suicide attempts, but the counselling services available in schools are so limited that students who have never tried to commit suicide are waiting for their turn at the service. The staff’s training budget has also been severely limited, and access to specialised subjects is harder to come by, meaning some fringe subjects may be dropped altogether. Finally, children will be affected as schools cut back on extras such as school pantomimes. Headteachers are concerned that the gap in funding between their school and others in wealthier areas is widening.

As a local authority, we are facing a dire lack of funding for our schools, ranking as the sixth worst-funded area in the country. The hope for many of us was that the national funding formula would provide some much-needed relief. However, the new formula will thrust Cheshire East into last place, as the 150th of 150 authorities. This means we are going from already struggling to worse than we could have ever imagined. It is a challenging and distressing time. David Waugh, from Poynton High School in Poynton, Cheshire, shares his story:

"We’re running out of options here. Over the past three years, we’ve implemented a policy of not replacing staff whenever possible. Unfortunately, last year, we had to let go of four people. It was the most challenging and heartbreaking thing I’ve ever had to do. Whilst education is about working with children, and having a happy and supportive team around them, having to say “some of you are losing your jobs” has a massive impact on everyone’s morale. Our fantastic teachers have done amazing things by going above and beyond with excellent wider curriculum activities, which have been based purely on goodwill. But we can only ask for so much before that goodwill runs out. It is therefore expected that we look at our curriculum offer more critically. We don’t offer computer science to certain groups of students because we simply can’t afford a new teacher. With pressure mounting from new courses, our staff has approached me on numerous occasions, requesting funds for resources such as textbooks, and, despite my best efforts to secure funding, I can’t afford to help. The new reality is that we need to find new cost-cutting measures in every aspect of schools, and we can no longer fix infrastructure issues unless it affects our service delivery. Prime Minister Theresa May’s call to establish more grammar schools is just rubbing salt into our open wound. We are at a critical juncture for education in this country, and unless we fix the problems of funding and recruitment, then we will see the whole system disappear. Passionate and dedicated teachers will end up leaving the profession due to unreasonable workload and poor remuneration, leaving us with a shortage of valuable teaching staff."

The struggles of our education systems continue with Sean Maher, from Richard Challoner school, New Malden, Greater London, sharing his story:

"Our staff numbers are decreasing alarmingly. In fact, we have some classrooms with as many as 34 pupils in them, and in certain cases, numbers have reached 35 students, as we cannot afford to open another class. There’s a student with special needs, and they need a one-to-one teacher, but, unfortunately, we are unable to provide such funding, so we end up redistributing resources from other classes. We don’t have enough staff to manage this. This lack of staff means that teachers end up with classes of 34 students, many with special needs and medical issues that require help that is no longer funded. For instance, there’s a diabetic child who passes out, but we get no financial support in terms of a medic or nurse on the premises, so every teacher needs to be trained to help the child in their time of need. It’s no surprise that teachers have been leaving the profession as they have, faced with dire working conditions and an overall lack of resources. We have been working with a very tight budget for the last couple of years, but things will only get worse for us over the next year. Consequently, we have had to resort to using higher level teaching assistants instead of the usual teacher substitutes when covering absent teachers. We used to have a considerable capital budget for all sorts of things such as roofing expenses, but now it’s just £6,000. I’ve requested the local government authority for some funds for replacing my roof, and, unfortunately, I have to provide the first £15,000. Thus, I won’t have any money left to fund my budget, which usually goes towards purchasing literacy resources, numeracy resources, and IT infrastructure."

As an educator in Brighton, one of my biggest worries is having to ask parents for financial support. Our city faces an unusual predicament with schools in the city center – which tend to serve more middle-class students – consistently being at capacity, while those in the outskirts struggle to fill even 100 spots. This has created a serious funding issue, as we lose out on roughly £300,000 for every 100 empty places.

The only thing preventing us from operating at a deficit is our excellent business manager and our extremely frugal operation. We have no budget for supply teachers, employing only one person to act as an in-house substitute. Whenever a teacher falls ill, we divide the class or use learning mentors to cover the gaps, as we can’t afford to pay for supply teachers. If someone goes on long-term sick leave, it could easily push us into the red. This is a major source of concern for me.

To keep our school afloat, I am constantly brainstorming ways to make money that don’t rely on traditional funding methods. We must think of ourselves as marketable commodities and get creative with our fundraising efforts. Our PTA and various fundraising events have become essential in purchasing needed equipment. For example, the PTA funded all of our computers.

We are always thinking of ways to generate revenue. At Christmas, our students made decorations in class which we sold to parents. We even filmed the school play and sold many DVDs to parents at a reasonable price, generating another £600 which we used for resources in our lessons. We even have to charge parents £1 to attend their children’s plays.

It’s unfortunate that it has come to a point where we must ask our teachers if they can afford essential items like Pritt Sticks before the financial year ends. This is not an ideal situation, but we are doing our best to keep the school running effectively.