Headteachers face crisis as Covid left schools with huge budget deficit

Headteachers are facing a back-to-school crisis after the pandemic blew their budgets.

Some have not been able to buy basics like glue sticks after spending thousands on making schools Covid-safe.

They have had to pay for increased cleaning, emergency laptops and extra supply teachers to keep kids learning in lockdown.

At the same time, vital sources of extra funding – like school dinner sales, hall hire and after-school clubs – dried up, leaving heads struggling to balance the books.

Latest data shows they are down an average £60,000 per school in the past 12 months.

The impact of the summer term ‘pingdemic’, where thousands of staff and students had to self-isolate, will also hit the new school year because budgets run in line with the financial year from April.

Average extra costs for schools during the pandemic were around £24,571 (PA)

One head said she spent half of her annual supply cover budget in June alone because so many of her 130 staff had to self-isolate.

Maria Kemble, executive head of St Edmund’s Catholic Primary in Bury St Edmunds and St Joseph’s Catholic Primary in Sudbury, Suffolk, said: “We’ve got to get through two terms with less than half a year’s budget and there is no more money.

“Cleaning hours have also increased hugely, along with the cost of materials.

“It is heartbreaking when you are having to say to staff that we have spent the budget and there is no money for glue sticks, with six weeks until the end of term.”

Schools had to arrange measures to comply with Covid rules (Getty Images)

A survey of 1,500 school leaders by headteachers’ union NAHT found average extra costs for schools during the pandemic were around £24,571, mostly to comply with the Government’s Covid safety rules.

The cost of extra supply cover was an average of £13,733 per school. The Government’s £139million exceptional cost scheme helped but it worked out at less than £6,500 per state school in England, with around one in four getting zero. A £6million pot for additional staffing costs equated to only £277 per school.

Nearly nine out of 10 school leaders said extra cash provided so far was not enough.

Paul Whiteman, of the NAHT, said: “The Government’s refusal to recognise the financial difficulties schools are facing means that not only is money being taken away from children’s education, it could push some schools over the edge financially.”

Shadow education secretary Kate Green said: “Throughout the pandemic children have been an afterthought for this government.”

The Department for Education said: “Schools are receiving the biggest uplift to funding in a decade, with this year the second of our £14.4billion investment over three years.

“We also provided additional funding to cover exceptional costs.”

I'll have to make cuts

Head Maria has had to save cash by not filling vacancies when staff leave and cutting activities like school trips.

She said: “We have also lost out on fundraising from the PTA. They used to pay for one coach trip per class each year but they haven’t been able to run events for 18 months.

“We have had to cut music tuition this year too. Previously we had lessons in violin and guitar but we can only offer guitar now because we cannot afford the subsidies.

“The Government keeps talking about wanting to give every maintained school pupil the opportunity to have that musical or sporting or cultural experience that private school pupils get, but they are not prepared to fund it.

“I’m just working on the basis that the Government won’t let schools go bankrupt.”