Academy leaders accused of ‘not speaking up about funding cuts’

Academy chains urged to speak out, instead of ‘worrying about where their next school is coming from’
27th March 2018, 4:01pm

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Academy leaders accused of ‘not speaking up about funding cuts’

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Academy leaders have been urged to speak out against cuts by a headteacher fronting a national school funding campaign.

Jules White, head of Tanbridge House School, a secondary in West Sussex, was speaking at an event held to discuss the national funding formula being introduced this year. 

Mr White, who launched the Worth Less? funding campaign, which now represents over 5,500 schools across the country, said many academies were under as much financial pressure as local authority maintained schools, but were failing to make their voices heard.

Talking about the financial choices facing headteachers, he said: “My school’s not going into debt. How have I done that? I’ve cut back on teachers, TAs [teaching assistants], on cleaning, on toilets. That’s how I’ve done it.

“And academies - where all the savings are meant to be? What a load of rubbish. They’re under massive duress, too. And more academies need to come and speak out, and stop worrying about where their next school is coming from, and actually say that their current schools are under massive pressure.”

School funding: ‘The sector has got to be more bold ’

The event in central London was organised by the f40 group, which represents local authorities that have historically attracted the lowest levels of education funding.

In response to a question from an audience member who said that multi-academy trusts (MATs) were too “insular”, Mr White said: “Why aren’t they speaking up? They’re struggling, moving money around their schools.”

Mr White said his campaign was ongoing, adding: “I want to get 1,000 headteachers outside Parliament.”

Julia Harnden, funding specialist at the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said her union was fighting for better school funding, and represented leaders from academies as well as from maintained schools. But, referring to schools in general, she added: “The sector has got to be more bold.”

Both Ms Harnden and Mr White took issue with comments they said had been made by the Department for Education’s funding group director, Tony Foot, at an earlier session, which journalists were banned from attending at Mr Foot’s request.

Ms Harnden said Mr Foot had talked about schools saving money by becoming more efficient. “I know that a lot of the colleagues I work with know they’re at the end of their efficiency [savings],” she said. “We need to use that as an opportunity to be bold and say, ‘We’ve done everything we can, this is where we are.’”

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