Schools are ‘running out of things to cut’, teachers warn Chancellor

Schools in the UK are running out of things to cut, teachers have told the government.

In an open letter to chancellor Philip Hammond, two teaching groups warned of a “funding crisis”.

They say education spending must be increased as extra funding is needed “desperately” if teachers want to keep their jobs.

The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) and the National Governors’ Association (NGA) warned that schools were running out of things to cut.

NAHT general secretary Russell Hobby and Emma Knights, NGA’s chief executive, said: “We are writing to underline the urgency of the school funding crisis and to ask you to use the upcoming Budget to deliver the investment that schools so desperately need.

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“Governing boards and school leaders are being forced to make impossible choices as a result of insufficient funding.

“They are doing their best to ‘make do’, but there are only so many financial efficiencies a school can find before reaching breaking point.

“Schools are running out of things they can cut.

“For many schools, the only real way they can make the savings the government is asking for is by making staff redundant.”

They urged the Chancellor to stick to the manifesto pledge to protect school funding.

“Every young person’s experience of school matters because it is an investment in the future of our society and economy,” they added.

“Greater investment in schools now will mean future costs associated with poor health, crime and unemployment are likely to be lower.”

Headteacher Mary Sandell of Forest School in Winnersh, Berkshire, said she was quitting because of the funding shortfall.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I’m going at the end of the summer holidays, August 31.

“I’m leaving something I love because quite simply there is not enough money to do the job properly.

“I’ve been in education since 1980 and it’s the worst it’s ever been from my perspective.”

Meanwhile, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said spending per pupil is set to fall by 6.5% by 2019/20.

It means that funding for 16-18 year-olds is no higher than it was almost 30 years ago.

The IFS study showed that the biggest spending increases in the last 20 years have been on schoolchildren in England, with £4,900 currently spent on each primary school pupil and £6,300 spent per secondary student.

In both cases this is around double, in real terms, the amount spent in the mid-1990s.

But the report shows that school spending is now falling, and will drop by 6.5% over the course of this Parliament.

However, a Department for Education spokesman said: “School funding is now at its highest level on record at more than £40 billion in 2016-17.

“We are transforming post-16 education and investing £7 billion to ensure there is a place in education or training for every 16 to 19-year-old who wants one.”

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron said: “These cuts could be the death of education as we know it.

“Smaller budgets will mean staff redundancies, bigger class sizes and slashing things like the school clothing grants that help some of the poorest pupils.

“These economies could also mean the end of the teaching assistants in the classroom.”