Rally Against School Cuts October 24th

From the National Education Union

Join parents, heads, teachers and support staff and community leaders at a rally to call on the government to reverse school cuts and fairly fund schools. Show your support for the mass lobby of MPs which has been organised to put pressure on the chancellor to take action on funding ahead of next month's budget. The rally starts at 10.30 but if you simply want to show your support at the rally, there will be further events at 12.30.

The Emmanuel Centre, Marsham Street, Westminster, London SW1P 3DW 

At the morning rally we have the following speakers:

 
- Angela Rayner MP, Shadow Secretary of State for Education
- Layla Moran, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Education
- Vix Lowthion, Green Party Education Spokesperson
- Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary, National Education
- Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary, National Education Union
- Paul Whiteman, General Secretary, NAHT

At 1pm, the programme of speakers will include:

 
- John McDonnell, Shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer
- Sir Vince Cable MP
- Dr Mary Bousted, Joint General Secretary, National Education
- Kevin Courtney, Joint General Secretary, National Education Union
- Paul Whiteman, General Secretary, NAHT
- Vix Lowthion, Green Party Education Spokesperson

 
More TBC

Because of shortfalls in funding, 88% of schools are still facing real-terms cuts despite Government announcements about more money going into the system.

That means less for our children and young people, bigger classes, fewer teachers and staff, a reduced curriculum and parents plugging the gaps.

Hundreds of parents and school staff will be lobbying their MP on the day. To find out how, see https://neu.org.uk/funding

NEU Joint General Secretary at Green Party Conference

Keep up the pressure on school funding by using School Cuts website

The School Cuts website has been updated.  You can now see which candidates have made the pledge to support proper funding for schools and the impact on particular schools of the manifesto promises of the three main parties.

The School Cuts site is embedded here so you can get information by typing directly into the search engine above.

At the time of writing this was the candidate response for Brent seats:

Voters urged to ask GE2017 candidates to pledge opposition to school cuts

Fill in the above to find the cuts faced by your local school and to see which candidates have signed the pledge to oppose the cuts

From Brent NUT

At the last General Election, the Conservatives promised to protect the money ‘following your child into school’. This promise was broken and we are now seeing the worst cuts to school budgets in a generation, with schools facing cuts of up to £3 billion a year by 2020.

Brent faces larger than average cuts. The table below shows how the cuts affect local constituencies:

The NUT, ATL and NAHT have updated the Schools Cuts website – www.schoolcuts.org.uk – so voters can email each Parliamentary candidate asking them to oppose funding cuts. By putting a postcode into the website, candidates in your area will appear and you can send an email to each one, asking them to oppose the real terms funding cuts for schools.

Lesley Gouldbourne, Brent Secretary said:

Already head teachers are saying that they cannot cope with the current levels of funding. This is a situation that will only get worse if the previous Government’s National Funding Formula is implemented.

It is vital that all candidates standing in the General Election for Brent promise to increase school funding. Failure to do so will see our schools continue to be desperately under resourced, teacher posts cut and drastic measures, such as closing schools earlier, may be considered.

Parents and children in Brent deserve better and our politicians should be standing with us in demanding investment in our schools.

You can see the funding reduction in each school by following these links: (you will need to open the file in Excel)

Brent Central

Brent North

Hampstead and Kilburn

Additional comment by Martin Francis:

It has emerged that in addition to these cuts Brent schools will also be hit by increases in employer contributions to the Brent Council Pension Fund over the next 3 years. This is to ensure the Fund is solvent and raises questions about the management of the Fund compared with other local authorities. Schools will need to find the money to pay increased contributions for support staff including teaching assistants and adminstrative staff. Source LINK

Brent Council urges parents to respond to government consultation on school funding

From Brent Council today

Parents, schools and Brent Council are uniting to defend local school children following Government plans to cut funding to local schools by £2.2 million.

The proposed cuts - which would see local schools lose two per cent of their budgets overall and equate to £105 per pupil - are a result of the government's National Funding Formula. Overall, schools in London are set to lose £19million.

As around 80 per cent of a school's budget is spent on staff salaries, funding reductions are likely to result in fewer teachers and support staff posts in schools, as well as increased class sizes. This is significant because top quality teachers who are motivated and highly skilled are the main reason that children make progress and achieve good results in their education.

Cllr Mili Patel, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said:

In recent years, schools in Brent have made great strides. We have gone from 78 per cent of schools in the Borough rated as 'Good' or 'Outstanding' by Ofsted, to 96 per cent currently. Our primary school, GCSE and A Level results are all above the national averages and we are in the middle of an ambitious school build programme to ensure that every child in Brent has access to a good local school place.

All of these things are absolutely fantastic and a result of the tireless hard work and dedication that our senior leaders, teachers, support staff and governors in Brent put in every single day. But we need the teachers and schools' staff in the first place and this is only possible thanks to the sustained investment over many years.

Fewer teachers and bigger class sizes will do nothing to help our school children thrive - especially in a hugely diverse borough like Brent where pupils come from a huge range of different backgrounds. This is why we, at Brent Council, will do everything we can to support our schools.

 If you are a parent of a school age child, the Government's current plans will see nearly £105 a year taken away from your child's education. I would urge all of our parents and carers in Brent to respond to the Department for Education's consultation and let them know what you think.

ENDS
 

What to do if you would like to know more or share your views

Have your say: You can submit your views to the government consultation about the NFF online at: https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula2/which is open until 22 March 2017.

These are  suggested responses to certain questons as set out below. 

·       Q1: In designing our national funding formula, we have taken careful steps to balance the principles of fairness and stability. Do you think we have struck the right balance?

·         The proposals do not provide enough financial stability for schools. All Primary schools in Brent stand to lose significant amounts of funding, and all schools are experiencing rising costs.

·         There is no evidence that schools can manage the funding reductions whilst maintaining or improving performance levels.

·         Additional funding should be allocated to prevent cash losses to individual schools.

·       Q2: Do you support our proposal to set the primary to secondary ratio in line with the current national average of 1:1.29, which means that pupils in the secondary phase are funded overall 29% higher than pupils in the primary phase?

·         Locally in Brent the proposals mean moving away from this national average resulting in primary schools losing funding.

·         The Department for Education should look again at the impact of the national formula on London primary schools.

·       Q7. Do you agree with the proposed lump sum amount of £110,000 for all schools?

·         Small school funding is not just a rural issue.  Smaller primary schools, including faith schools, serve their community but can not always expand as physical space is an issue in London.  Smaller primary schools should receive additional funding.

·       Q14. Are there further considerations we should be taking into account about the proposed schools national funding formula?

·         The school national funding formula should be considered alongside the Pupil Premium funding.  We believe that an area cost adjustment should also be applied to the Pupil Premium to reflect higher costs in London.

·         Many of the cost pressures facing schools are the direct result of government policy, such as changes to national insurance and pension contributions, and the introduction of the Apprenticehip Levy. Any action the government can take to ease these cost pressures would make the introduction of a fair funding formula less challenging.

How much will your school's budget be cut by 2020 - figures here

At yesterday's meeting for governors Gail Tolley, Brent Strategic Director for Children and Families, said the most pressing issue for Brent schools in the future would not be multi-academy trusts or grammar schools but budget cuts and the new funding formula.

Below I publish a spreadsheet from School Cuts with projected budgets for 2020 showing the extent of the expected cuts. Coupled with current problems in recruiting and retaining both class teachers and senior staff this represents a major challenge to maintain current educational standards.

The basis of the calculations can be found HERE

Click on bottom right for full size workbook. Search facility is top right in full size workbook: (...)