The Isle of Wight Association of Secondary and Primary Headteachers has written to the PM, Theresa May, and Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening MP.
Concerned about the “massive changes projected for the coming financial year”, they say the situation will be untenable, adding in the strongest terms, that “enough is enough”. They go on to accuse the government of “beginning to break schools, people and communities”.
The letter in full reads,
We feel that we need to write to you to express our concern with regard to education funding. We are a group of experienced Headteachers, working extremely hard on the Isle of Wight to bring about sustainable improvements in educational outcomes for the young people we are proud to serve.
Ours has been a turbulent journey in recent years but the partnership between The Isle of Wight and Hampshire Local Authorities is now beginning to give us a real sense that we can achieve something special for our community as a whole. Our journey, however, appears to run a real risk of being spectacularly derailed by the funding crisis looming large on the horizon. Thousands upon thousands of senior leaders, teachers, governors and parents, the length and breadth of the country, are all telling you the same thing.
As a result of the massive changes projected for the coming financial year, this situation will be untenable. You are beginning to break schools, people and communities.
Please accept that we can’t all be wrong; please listen to what we are saying to you before it is too late.
In the run up to the last election, we were assured that education funding would be `protected` or `ring fenced` for the next five years. The reality is that whilst funding has been on a “flat-cash” basis, costs in schools nationally are reported as having increased by on average 8% over the last three years. This gap between funding and costs, in particular National Insurance and pension contributions which have spiralled this year, looks set to continue in the future.
In reality, it is perfectly clear that spending on education has been cut, with further significant issues to come next year and the following years. We call on you both now to fund these and other additional costs and actually increase education funding, rather than starving Local Authorities and schools of their resources they need. You are making our job impossible, and our young people only get the one chance.
We also call on you now to clarify your rationale for allocating 50 million pounds as part of an ill-advised creation of a segregated, selective, two tier state education system. When you write back to us, please explain how your selective school proposals will solve the escalating recruitment crisis and help us strengthen our work with young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Education is the route out of poverty for so many.
Funding our schools adequately is an essential investment in the future, yet staff are facing redundancies and students are having to be offered a reduced curriculum. It is a false economy to repeatedly and systematically focus on the cost of education rather than its value to our society. We seek clarification from you as to why you will not give adequate resources for all education funding, regardless of location, sector or age.
Enough is enough; this cannot go on.
The Letter
See the letter in full below. Click on the full screen icon to see larger version.
