On Sunday the Guardian reported on the funding crisis in schools across the country. This includes stories of headteachers making double-figured staff cuts and primary pupils having to clean their classrooms after lessons in an attempt to re-balance ailing finances.
Reports claim secondary schools in England are facing the steepest cuts to funding since the 1970s, according to analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies. The National Audit Office calculates cuts of 8% in real terms by 2019-20 in all schools.
Latymer, a selective school in north London, has found that raising £70,000 in donations this year after an appeal to parents has not been enough to stave off cuts.
The head teacher Maureen Cobbet wrote to parents saying: “For the next academic year, we will reduce staffing and teacher allowances further. Sadly Latin, PE, technology and sociology will no longer be offered to students joining the sixth form in September 2017.”
Share your experiences
We want to hear from parents and teachers about funding cuts. What is your school doing? Are you worried? If you are campaigning against cuts, what are you doing locally? We are keen to report on the overall picture across the country, so please share with us any letters about plans to reduce costs. We will use some of this in our reporting.
- People can share anonymously the form is encrypted and only the Guardian has access to responses.
