Headteachers warn Theresa May that education cuts will mean slashing jobs and school clubs

Headteachers have warned Theresa May that cuts to education will mean severe job losses.

Educators said the cuts would also lead schools with no choice but to drop sports teams and science clubs.

Dozens of headteachers at nursery, primary and secondary schools in Lewisham, south east London, have penned an open letter to the prime minister in a bid to halt the education funding crisis.

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Schools in England are facing £3 billion in cuts in the first real-terms funding drop for 20 years.

The 71 headteachers in Lewisham want Mrs May to meet them and see for herself the impact of the cuts.

‘For all of our schools this level of cuts is untenable and will impact directly on the quality of education delivered to our young people,’ they wrote to the prime minister.

‘Whilst in all schools we will do our best to meet our statutory duties, the quality of this provision, and our ability to meet the individual needs of different groups will be severely compromised.’

The headteachers warned that school plays, science and technology clubs, sports teams, school trips and music tuition could all be scrapped.

‘All of these provisions along with many others make a significant contribution to the development of our young people,’ wrote the headteachers.

‘The pastoral care and wellbeing of students is being threatened by the cuts that have already taken hold and will be worsened by the imposition of the new funding formula.

‘At a time when the mental health of young people is being highlighted we are seeing counselling provision, mentoring and general support being reduced across our schools.

‘In a borough that works hard to keep young people safe, in often challenging circumstances, we are concerned that these cuts will jeopardise the safety of the most vulnerable.’

The Conservative party has promised an extra £4 billion for the schools budget by 2022, but teachers don’t think it will be enough because of rising pupil numbers and inflation.

The letter reads: ‘We are aware of the regularly stated position of your government asserting that you are putting more money than ever before into schools.

‘What you fail to point out is that schools are having to use an increasing proportion of their budgets to cover rising costs relating to national insurance and pension contributions, and escalating costs of services, leaving an ever decreasing balance for us to deliver the quality of education that we and our staff teams are committed to delivering.

‘Even if per pupil funding levels for primary and secondary schools are frozen at current rates, anticipated inflationary pressures over the next three years mean an 8% real terms cut in schools spending power which will impact on our classrooms.’

Meanwhile, a school in Dorset said 20 teachers risk losing their jobs.

Mike Foley, headteacher at Thomas Hardye school in Dorchester, told the Bournemouth Echo: ‘Year on year we are having to reduce the amount of teachers, which is true of almost every school.

‘The budget is being reduced by eight percent, which means we would need to lose 20 teachers by 2020.’

In an open letter to parents, Kevin Broadway, headteacher at All Saints School in Weymouth, wrote: ‘Our school is facing a financial hardship.

‘We do all we can to make sure our decisions don’t affect the learning of the children, but this is becoming increasingly more difficult.

‘There is nothing more important to a parent than the education of their child, aside from their happiness of course.

‘Standards are in danger of declining if we keep on having to make more cuts. This will impact on the quality of education.’