Headteachers launch campaign for more school funding

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A lack of education funding will see West Sussex children educated in larger classes than elsewhere in the country.

Such was the warning from headteachers as they launched a campaign calling for a better – fairer – funding deal from the government.

Every primary, secondary and special school head in the county has put their name to the Worth Less? campaign and headteachers are determined to make parents aware of how dire the situation has become.

Jules White, of Tanbridge House, Horsham, Peter Woodman, of The Weald, in Billingshurst, and Michael Ferry, of St Wilfrid’s School, in Crawley, explained that West Sussex schools were so poorly funded they could not afford to recruit new or specialist staff, meaning some subject options had to be dropped.

When it came to classroom sizes, an already serious problem was predicted to get worse – especially for primary schools.

Mr White said primary schools would “hardly be able to stay within the law”, which calls for no more than one teacher to 30 children.

He added: “They just won’t be able to do it. They just will not be able to have any TA (teaching assistant) support. So parents need to know that their seven-year-old will be in a class of 32 or 35 with one adult.

“Primary schools will not be able to upgrade any basic equipment.

“Even in a school like Tanbridge – and we haven’t got any capital problems – we will simply not be able to do any work around technologies and so on. Kids will be disadvantaged by that and we will not be able to recruit.

“We will have to recruit non-specialists and kids will just get a much less good deal.”

West Sussex is one of the most poorly funded education authorities in the country, taking in £4,198 per pupil compared to the national average of £4,612.

In London, where teachers are paid more, the average figure per pupil is well in excess of £6,000.

The campaigners said that if West Sussex schools were funded at the national average, there would be an extra £41million per year in the pot. If they were funded the same as some London schools, that figure would be £212million.

In November, after much pressure from authorities up and down the country, the government acknowledged the current funding system was in need of an overhaul and pledged to introduce a new system from 2017.

While welcoming the news, the headteachers said it would be several more years before school budgets would feel the effect.

With costs rising and each school needing more than £100,000 extra in next year’s budget just to tread water, they have asked for the county to be given an interim sum to ease the pressure.

Mr White said: “When you think our shortfall from the national average is just about £41million, if we just said could we have £10million we would still be massively short of the national average.

“But sums like £10million would make a difference not only to secondaries but to primaries. Some primary schools are literally scrabbling around for five to 10 grand to make ends meet.”

Mr Woodman acknowledged West Sussex had been given some additional funding last year but added: “It was £1million out of a budget of over £500million. So it’s 0.2 per cent - and that’s a drop in the ocean.

“One of the hardest things the government faces is, if they’re not going to put more money in education, what they’ve got to do is a Robin Hood act – they’ve got to take from the rich and give to the poor.

“And that means there will be winners and losers – and that’s not popular politically.”