School funding is in ‘a dire state’ says Thame Headteacher

AFTER Education Secretary, Damian Hinds, was criticised by the headteachers’ campaigning group Worth Less? for refusing to meet headteachers and hear first-hand their struggles with funding cuts, 7,000 Headteachers all over the country, sent letters home to parents about ‘the dire state’ of education funding – including the Head of Lord Williams’s school in Thame.

‘Meangingless statistic’

David Wybron, The Head of Lord Williams’s school, has written to Damian Hinds, challenging the government’s claim that its spending on schools was ‘at record levels,’ and to Thame’s MP John Howell, asking specific questions about changes to schools’ funding:

Mr Wybron wrote to Damian Hinds:

“Last Friday, I again supported the ‘Worth Less?’ Campaign and along with thousands of other Headteachers, sent a letter to parents/carers explaining why school funding is in such a dire state. The government, as it has done on countless occasions over the last 18 months, claimed that the government spending on schools was at record levels.”

“This is a completely meaningless statistic because student numbers have risen considerably over this period as have staffing costs. The only data that really should matter is spending per individual student. I have also written to our local MP John Howell and simply asked him to answer three questions. Hopefully, he now has the answers from the House of Commons Library research team. They are:

 Will you confirm to your constituents that per pupil funding has fallen by 8% in real terms since 2010? (Institute of Fiscal Studies Annual Report September 2018)
 Will you confirm that increasing staffing costs are set to cripple schools (the government is planning to increase the employers’ contribution for teacher pensions in September 2019 from 16.48% to 23.68% and this is unfunded from 2020-21. If it remains unfunded it will add around £336,000 to our staffing costs).
 Will you agree to campaign to reverse the above decision on schools’ teacher pensions contributions?

“These matters are so important for our young people. We are currently paying for all services which were hitherto provided by the Local Authority and the money we were entitled to, to cover these costs as an academy, has now been removed completely. This is on top of considerable cuts to our Sixth Form funding because the Schools’ Budget does not include Sixth Form funding. I raise this again, because it is conveniently forgotten whilst other spurious things are said by government spokespeople, such as including the money being spent by students and their families on university tuition and counting this as part of the government’s investment in education!

“I am almost more cross about the dishonesty in all this and would appeal for the government to speak with integrity on these matters even if it is to say, ‘We are in tough times, be creative with lessresources’. To pretend this is not the real situation is and remains scandalous.

David Wybron
Headteacher
Lord Williams’s School, Thame

THIS is the letter sent out to LWS parents and carers updating them on school funding issues:

“Dear Parent/Carer

“I wanted to contact you to provide an update on current issues relating to school funding.

“Sadly, I have to confirm that despite intense lobbying of the Government and Department for Education, matters remain extremely challenging. In short, schools are still not being provided with adequate funding and resource to deliver the level of provision and support that is expected and that our families and children deserve.

Current Concerns

 Since 2010 school budgets have been reduced in real terms by 8% and by 20% at post-16.
 Class sizes are rising and the curricular offer is being restricted.
 Increasingly, schools are being asked to support with children’s emotional health and wellbeing. Frequently, we do not have adequate resource to meet a growing need.
 Often, the most vulnerable students in our schools – those from disadvantaged backgrounds or those with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) – are bearing the brunt of cuts and schools are struggling to provide the levels of support that they are entitled to.

“These issues are not simply affecting a few schools. They are common features across our education system up and down the country. Levels of concern are so widespread amongst headteachers that we are all working together with a united voice. As such, we have written to the Secretary of State for Education on three separate occasions since September 2018. We are dismayed that he has chosen to ignore our communications and repeated requests to meet. On 13 December 2018, we were informed by a junior civil servant that: “I am afraid that, on this occasion, the Secretary of State and the Minister of State must decline your offer to meet. I hope you will understand that their time is heavily pressurised and their diaries need to be prioritised according to ministerial, Parliamentary and constituency business.”

“Given the seriousness of the current school funding crisis and the impact upon schools, children and families, headteacher colleagues and I, believe that this approach is entirely ill-judged. On 14 January, 2019, we wrote again to the Secretary of State for Education asking that he reconsider meeting with
representative headteachers. Six weeks later, this request was declined once more: “As I’m sure you will appreciate, both their diaries are very full and they are unable to accept your kind offer at this time.”

“Thousands of headteachers simply do not understand what issues could be seen as more important than the ones we are raising on behalf of schools, children and families.

“In September 2018, over 2000 headteachers campaigned at Westminster in order to underline the seriousness of the current situation. This action was unprecedented.

“The ‘Worth Less?’ campaign group now comprises 64 Local Authorities and Boroughs, covering thousands of schools and millions of families. This gives a clear indication of the levels of concern felt by reasonable and moderate headteachers in England.

“We continue to recognise that there is not a ‘bottomless pit’ of money and also acknowledge that many local MPs from across the political spectrum are taking a supportive approach. We must make clear, however, that the current response from the Department for Education is inadequate.

Why we need to meet:

 Headteachers want to contribute constructively to overcome current funding issues.
 Headteachers want to reflect the serious concerns expressed by families regarding inadequate levels or resource and provision especially for our most vulnerable students.
 Headteachers want to ensure that schools receive a much better deal when future Government spending plans – the Comprehensive Spending Review – are drawn up over the next few months.
 Headteachers want to indicate serious and rising concerns relating to the wider pastoral and social care that schools are expected, by default, to provide against a background of severe cuts to Local Authority provision.

“Headteacher colleagues and I feel fortunate that we have been so strongly supported by parents and carers as we campaign for a much improved level of funding for our schools and pupils. We urge you to continue to make representations to your local MP and to the Department for Education and wider Government to ensure that matters improve.

“We will continue to inform you of the facts and to campaign vigorously over coming weeks and months. A positive starting point should come from the Secretary of State for Education in the form of an urgent meeting.”

Yours sincerely
David Wybron