Headteacher tells MP to stand up for town's schoolchildren

Crawley's MP Henry Smith has been called on to stand up for the town's schoolchildren and 'not hide behind fictitious statistics'.
Headteachers at Downing StreetHeadteachers at Downing Street
Headteachers at Downing Street

The call came from Rob Corbett, head of Ifield Community College, after he and dozens of school leaders from across the country appealed to the Chancellor for better school funding.

Some 70 heads, representing 5,000 schools from Cumbria to Devon, delivered a letter to Philip Hammond last week, calling on him to pump more money into the education budget.

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Banding together under the WorthLess? campaign, which was started in West Sussex two years ago, the heads told the Chancellor the new National Funding Formula, introduced by secretary of state Justine Greening in July, had done “little to alleviate either the funding crisis and/or funding disparities that are engulfing schools across the country”.

Henry Smith MPHenry Smith MP
Henry Smith MP

Essentially, a school in West Sussex will still receive hundreds of thousands or even millions of pounds less per year than a similar school elsewhere in the country – the kind of ‘postcode lottery’ Ms Greening said the new formula would end.

In addition, while the new system included investment of £1.3bn, the National Audit Office had already reported that schools would face real-term cuts of £3bn by 2020 – meaning they would still be £1.7bn worse off.

The heads implored Mr Hammond to reinstate that £1.7bn into schools as part of his Autumn Budget today (Wednesday November 22).

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Mr Corbett said: “The amount pupils receive in other areas of the country, who take the same exams and whose parents pay the same tax, remain significantly greater.

Rob Corbett, head of Ifield Community CollegeRob Corbett, head of Ifield Community College
Rob Corbett, head of Ifield Community College

“This leaves Crawley children still the poor relations and we call upon Henry Smith to stand up for them not hide behind fictitious statistics.”

Mr Smith, who served as parliamentary private secretary to Ms Greening – a post he has since resigned – has repeatedly stated that Crawley schools would receive “one of the highest increases in funding nationally” – initially quoting a rise of at least 8.4 per cent but now quoting 10.3 per cent.

Mr Corbett pointed out that this would only be the case if the National Funding Formula was implemented in full. But a briefing paper published by the Government on November 10 said this would not happen straight away, with transitional arrangements set out for the years until 2020.

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When asked about Mr Corbett’s call, Mr Smith said: “I support the government increasing Crawley school funding by 10.3 per cent but am calling for further investment in recognition of historic inadequate education finance for West Sussex.”

WorthLess? campaign logoWorthLess? campaign logo
WorthLess? campaign logo

Jules White, the driving force behind the WorthLess? campaign, said he and his colleagues had had a “remarkably positive day” in Downing Street.

He added: “We were able to make clear that although we recognise that the new formula provides some financial uplift to our schools, significant rising costs and the fact that we are already cut to the bone means that the formula is too little, too late.”

Mr White accused the government of trying to “blind the public with enormous figures” while making no mention of the increasing costs faced by schools.

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Figures from the Department for Education showed an average-sized secondary school in West Sussex would still receive around £2m less than a similar school in Greenwich under the new formula.

In some cases the figure would be as high as £4m when compared to a secondary school in Hackney.

Mr White said: “The schools minister, Nick Gibb, needs to explain how this is fair or reasonable. Schools and families are not asking for gold-plated classrooms, but they are asking for a just funding system.

“Our local MPs must state publicly whether they support these new funding arrangements and all of their failures, or not.”

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The Crawley heads who went to Downing Street were: Anthony White, of Pound Hill Juniors, Michael Ferry, of St Wilfrid’s, Rob Corbett, of Ifield Community College, Kaye Gilzene, of Waterfield Primary, and Grahame Robson, of Manor Green College. Mr Smith was invited to attend but said he was unable to do so as he had a medical appointment for surgery that day.

Looking at his school’s budget – which was £1.6m less than a similar school in London – Mr Ferry said he had managed to save £230,000 at St WIlfrid’s in the past financial year by not replacing staff when they left.

He said: “It needs to be recognised how badly off we are. We need to make sure parents know it is their children who are losing out.

“If it doesn’t get better, standards will fall in West Sussex. We cannot keep doing this.

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“What we will end up with is a very narrow curriculum which is all we can afford and doesn’t give our students the life chances they deserve.

“If we don’t get any action, schools will be calling on parents to pay for more things. Extra-curricular activities will be reduced and we will get to a point where we won’t have enough staff to run the schools safely.

“The cracks are going to just get wider.”

One of the big problems headteachers have with the new funding formula is the fact that it doesn’t allow for rising costs.

While the government’s claim that investment in education is at its highest ever is accurate, ever-increasing costs mean schools are actually worse off.

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If your income rises from £19,000 to £20,000 but your costs rise to £22,000, you may be earning more but you will never be able to balance the books.

This is the situation schools face for the foreseeable future unless more money is made available to educate the next generation to the world class standard they deserve.

Mr Hammond is expected to deliver his Budget statement to the House of Commons today (Wednesday November 22) at 12.30pm, following Prime Minister’s Questions.