We've all taught in the kinds of schools where you have to be quick to find a bucket the moment a rain cloud appears on the horizon - especially if you are unlucky enough to have a classroom with a flat roof. Classrooms that are leaky, draughty and, frankly, the kinds of places I wouldn't want to house my pet guinea pig let alone a group of children I am trying to teach.
Yesterday the Guardian delivered a story and datablog showing how the cuts to public expenditure break down. It made for worrying reading but came as no shock to see a cut to the schools infrastructure budget of 81% (mainly due to Gove scrapping Labour's Building Schools for Future scheme). But what does this mean on the ground for teachers? More leaky classrooms and crumbling buildings?
We asked the same question on Twitter and teacher @singsunshine said: "Every school I have worked in is dropping to bits."
Back in the summer last year a survey of heads by The Key, a national education support service, conducted for The Observer, saw that of 667 heads and school business managers questioned 39% felt their buildings were unfit for purpose.
One business manager of a school in Blackpool said the classroom windows had loose glass, the ceilings leaked and pupils were unable to drink the tap water in the toilets. Terry Scott, headteacher of De Bohun primary in Southgate, north London, said his school looked like "a shelled building from some war-torn country."
How will the cuts affect your school and your pupils? What will these austerity measures really mean at the chalkface? Share your story with us by making a comment below.
