Headteachers highlight real concerns over school funding

A new survey revealed exclusively by ITV News today, 11 January, has found that 72% of headteachers warn that their schools will be in the red in the next financial year.

West Country heads say the situation is made worse by the fact that there is not fair funding for all schools.

Tavistock College is one of the largest secondary schools in Devon. Its principal told ITV News West Country that her pupils receive £3,000 less each than children at a similar school in the South East.

There are 1,000 pupils at Tavistock College, equating to a £3 million shortfall.

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Sarah Jones, the Principal of Tavistock College, said that some schools in Devon were having to cut their curriculum in order to balance the books.

As well as curriculum cuts, schools are also having to make difficult decisions about the care that they offer their students, at a time when, according to the survey, 97% of schools are taking on duties normally carried out by the police or social care.

Schools also have to provide services that used to be offered by the local authority like counselling, behaviour support and speech therapy.

Headteachers gathered at Parliament Square in September 2018 to demand better funding for education. Credit: PA

Sarah Jones has appealed to the government for better funding for pupils at Tavistock College.

She says, "If we're funded adequately, even by comparison to other schools, if we could be funded on a fair funding formula, we could do so much more and not feel dissatisfied at the end of the day that we haven't given everything that that young person needed."

The survey also highlighted the lack of resources, with 80% of headteachers saying their teachers were paying for resources themselves.

It revealed increased difficulties in meeting the needs of children with Special Educational Needs and Disability

Wiltshire headteacher Sarah Lowkis is calling for more money to cope with growing numbers of pupils, many with mental health needs. Credit: ITV West Country

Sarah Lowkis is head of Lavington School in Market Lavington in Wiltshire. She says the school needs more money to improve and cater for growing pupil numbers.

She told ITV News West Country, "We would love to have more support staff in the school for example for those students with social and emotional mental health needs which is a huge increase. And providing the services and support for them would be really important to us and we'd love to enhance that position."

Pupils in the playground at Lavington School in Wiltshire Credit: ITV West Country

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In an interview with ITV News, Nick Gibb, the Minister for School Standards said "We are spending record amounts of money on our schools - £42bn this year. Every local authority will be receiving an increase in funding for every pupil in every school. We are asking schools to do more as we're driving up academic standards. And academic standards are rising right across our school system.

"We do acknowledge that there have been cost pressures on schools, that's why we're helping schools, particularly those schools that are struggling to manage their budget and aren't making ends meet. We're helping those schools with some expert advice and we've got school resource managers going in to help them. We've got bulk buying schemes that enable them to buy big items like energy and computers more efficiently and more cheaply."

Asked about mental health pressures, the Minister said, "We take mental health issues extremely seriously. They're not mental health professionals - teachers are teachers of geography or maths and so on and we need to make sure that we do have sufficient resources to deal with what is an increasing problem amongst young people."