At a local weekend car boot sale recently I was somewhat taken aback when the chair of the local school’s PTA triumphantly announced that £200 had been raised and the school could, therefore, afford to buy glue sticks and glitter in the lead up to Christmas.

Whether this comment was hyperbole or not is almost beside the point: the fact is that the financial situation in too many schools is now so desperate that they are resorting to fundraising, directly asking parents for contributions or making staff redundant just to balance their books.

I am increasingly clear that the consequences of the government’s education funding cuts will be a lost generation of pupils. It is they who have felt the brunt over the last five years, as ministers have cut school finances to the quick.

Politicians might talk glibly about school budgets being at record levels, but they don’t mention increases to national insurance, to teachers’ pensions, the national living wage, annual pay rises, inflation and of course the apprenticeship levy.

It is these costs that led to heads asking for an extra £1 billion in the forthcoming budget.

Funding ‘half the story’

But even this only tells half of the story. Redundancies in schools are spreading like wildfire: teachers, support staff and any others lost to the profession, in most cases for good. Subjects have been cut as departments cease to exist, which inevitably leads to teachers teaching subjects they are not trained in; every member of the school staff has an increased workload.

And so this “lost generation” of pupils - through no fault of their own - experience reduced curriculum often devoid of the arts and creative activities. They are taught by teachers who not experts in the subject they are teaching, with fewer and fewer support staff meeting their emotional or academic needs.

The classes they are taught in are growing bigger and bigger, with fewer opportunities for small group or one-to-one support. The wellbeing needs of pupils falls down school agendas. Schools in 2017 are not the place to be if you have additional needs to be met...

And then the buildings begin to disintegrate before our very eyes, staff morale drops through the floor and yet more teachers leave.

It is essential that we let the government know about these in all our schools. Pupil’s chances are being affected right now. We need to shout about it right now.

Colin Harris led a school in a deprived area of Portsmouth for more than two decades. His last two Ofsted reports were “outstanding” across all categories. To read more of Colin’s articles, visit his back catalogue

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