A new Website developed by the National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) has been launched this week.
It aims to predict the level of cuts to funding for schools across the country between 2015-2020.
Impact for the Island
With great strides being achieved to improve educational attainment on the Isle of Wight, further cuts to funding could spell disaster and see the good work of the last three years fall by the wayside.
Using an interactive map on the School Cuts Website, it suggests that, for example, Christ the King College in Newport could lose six teachers, St Francis Primary School in Ventnor five teachers and Sandown Bay Academy, six teachers all by 2020.
How the data was calculated
Department for Education (DfE) funding data from 2015/16 was used as the baseline and the impact of the cash freeze on per pupil income, the proposed cut to the Education Services Grant and the proposed introduction of a National Funding Formula was used to calculate the predicted cuts.
The NUT are urging residents to try out the interactive School Cuts map and email Isle of Wight Conservative MP, Andrew Turner to let him know what’s happening in schools and ask him to take action.
To find out whether your local school will be affected by further cuts in funding by the Government, simply enter your postcode into the School Cuts Website.
Additional money is needed in schools
The union say that without additional funding, a new funding formula will simply spread an already inadequate amount of money around more thinly.
They say,
“Unless the Government allocates additional money, schools and academies will lose huge amounts of money – rising to £2.5 billion a year in real terms by 2020. We estimate that 92% of schools could lose out, even after the introduction of a new funding formula. These cuts will hurt us all.
“The NUT and the ATL are calling on the Government to take immediate action to inject much needed money into an already beleaguered system and protect schools from rising costs. It is the only sensible solution to a crisis with which schools are already dealing and which is set to get worse.”
