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Original poster

Government says parents shouldn't be worried about school funding

136 replies

noblegiraffe · 29/03/2023 22:07

Gillian Keegan, current Education Secretary (you might not know this as there have been a few recently) was just interviewed by Sophy Ridge and said that parents shouldn't be worried about school funding.

School funding has been below 2010 per pupil levels for 13 years now. This has resulted in redundancies of TAs, support staff and teachers. It has resulted in subject choices being cut at GCSE and A-level. It has resulted in the school estate crumbling to the point where some school buildings are officially at 'imminent' risk of collapse, and there have been injuries to children and school staff where ceilings have fallen in.

Headteachers had to make further cuts last summer due to a late-announced unfunded teacher pay rise for September.

There is a shortage of TAs as schools can't hire due to being unable to afford competitive pay levels and TAs are choosing to work in supermarkets instead of schools.

There is a shortage of exam invigilators, again partly due to uncompetitive pay, and the government has been forced to relax ratios to allow exams to go ahead.

There is a shortage of teachers and now this year and next there is a devastating shortage of people training to be teachers, for various reasons including workload and lack of flexible working, but also uncompetitive pay.

Schools are also having to prop up the gaps left by the collapse of local services such as CAMHS and SEN support services who are now largely inaccessible.

We had a pandemic which adversely affected the education of children, and yet school funding levels remain below that of 2010.

How can parents possibly not be concerned about school funding?

OP posts:
Ginflinger · 31/03/2023 20:43

We had a letter from the school today asking if any parents were in a position to make regular direct debit donations. So actually yes I am worried about school funding.

Jules912 · 31/03/2023 20:51

Our school has been asking for a voluntary donation for a while. This year it went from a suggested £20 a year to £50. I actually expect they're doing better than most as we're in a nice middle class area and most parents can and do pay.
DS's new high school is asking for between £50 and £100 a month, although as a grammar school I expect they'll get it as a lot of parents see it as a cheap alternative to private.

Easterfunbun · 31/03/2023 21:13

I am concerned about my youngest twos primary school. They had multiple buckets today in their classrooms due to the heavy rain. Their school is however being completely rebuilt next year. Genuinely worried about a roof caving in.

Lougle · 31/03/2023 21:37

DD1 was in a class of 11, then 12, then 13, then 14 at special school. It destroyed her. Her needs were unmet and she ended up hospitalised and is still under psychiatric care now. I was at CAMHS this week and there was a boy from her old school. I heard him complain to his Mum that he'd asked for help and didn't get it. The Mum said "Well remember there are 18 in your class..."

That's a special school. Budgets are so stripped that class sizes are bulging. TA support shrinking.

wonkylegs · 01/04/2023 10:31

DS1s class sizes pre GCSE were shocking, for maths & English they were 38 & 36 respectively, now at GCSE they are down to 30 "so they get more attention in critical years"
The classrooms are literally not big enough for the numbers of students with extra chairs added to the ends of tables.
School is short staffed and overcrowded and I can't see that changing before he leaves.

Casilero · 02/04/2023 00:43

I've just read on Twitter that the Government is spending 8 million on "free" portraits of King Charles to be distributed amongst schools. So maybe you can use that to patch up the holes in the roof?

BOYBANDLOVER · 02/04/2023 03:05

there are millions and millions of us home educating in the uk.

imagine if we all put our kids in schools.

there's no way it could happen

no where near enough places or money

on one of my Facebook groups alone there's 6.5k.
that's just one group alone. imagine if every kid were counted and i know many families with 5+kids.

one in my meet up group has 11 kids

my boys are disabled and since 2015 ive saved my council thousands and thousands of pounds by educating my kids by myself and as my youngest is still only y7 thousands in the future

both have disabilities and would be in special school with a full time 1-1 each, taxis provided x2 for a far distance as we don't do special schools around here(rural Wales)its the local village school or none.

if that's not suitable hard lines, in our case it was, i was told my school cant deal with my kids issues(he was 4) and when i asked where do i go next my council told me i don't have a answer for you.

this is when i discovered the world of home education, and that was from a asd support group

if i didn't go down the H.E route i have no idea what we would have done.

all lockdowns my kids went through zero stress

BOYBANDLOVER · 02/04/2023 03:09

forgot to add. my nephew is 6 months older than my son and in y8

hes in a class of 50. yes 50

its the only comprehensive around here for 10 miles

Casilero · 02/04/2023 03:51

@BOYBANDLOVER I admire you for home educating. I really wanted to with my youngest daughter but didn't because my marriage wasn't solid enough.

My 3 kids did actually do ok in school academically, but only because I arranged a lot of additional private tuition, as well as putting in a lot of extra support in myself. My 3 all have specific learning difficulties and the eldest 2 in particular had a miserable time at school and now at the age of 22 they still struggle socially It's a big regret of mine that I didn't home school. If I could go back and have my time again, I would have home schooled all 3 of them.

Spendonsend · 02/04/2023 07:53

I just wanted to add to the large class sizes. My son was in a mixed year group of 42 in the room for several years. There literally wasnt room for them all to sit down and work. They had to use windowsills

riskybiznisses · 02/04/2023 09:06

@Cheguevarahamster what a waste!

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 02/04/2023 09:07

We can put the Charlie pic wherever we put the Michael Gove King James Bible.

OP posts:
MrsHamlet · 02/04/2023 09:19

At least the Bible was useful for my lessons.

Cheguevarahamster · 02/04/2023 09:41

noblegiraffe · 02/04/2023 09:07

We can put the Charlie pic wherever we put the Michael Gove King James Bible.

As someone on twitter most succintly put it . "its not the first time that the Tories have blown £8 million on Charlie"

bitcharming · 02/04/2023 10:45

So what can I do as a parent? School fund?
Our kids School discos/ theme events have gone from costing £1 a ticket to £3 a ticket in the last couple of years.
And they spend a lot of time and effort on fundraising.

What can I do to help? I don't have much time or much money but I have a bit of each to spare. I'll have more time next year to spare, absolutely

Spendonsend · 02/04/2023 10:52

bitcharming · 02/04/2023 10:45

So what can I do as a parent? School fund?
Our kids School discos/ theme events have gone from costing £1 a ticket to £3 a ticket in the last couple of years.
And they spend a lot of time and effort on fundraising.

What can I do to help? I don't have much time or much money but I have a bit of each to spare. I'll have more time next year to spare, absolutely

Make it clear school funding is a voting issue for you. Write to your mp, if people knock on your door touting votes, tell them, go to hustings and raise education funding as an isse that will impact in how you vote.

toomuchlaundry · 02/04/2023 10:53

@bitcharming write to your MP (and get other parents to do this as well) about the lack of school funding

bitcharming · 02/04/2023 11:15

OK so write to my MP, I'm not very well spoken, I'm assuming
dear Mp, please give schools more money,
thanks
bitcharming

won't do? Any idea how to word it.? Please

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 02/04/2023 11:39

Hold tight, I'm working on something.

OP posts:
MrsHerculePoirot · 02/04/2023 11:52

@bitcharming you don’t have to write a lot. Others will have written in much more detail and realistically they won’t read the finer detail of every letter and you’ll likely get back a stock response re funding. BUT that is enough - they just need to know strength of feeling, the feeling of size of how many voters in their constituency this is important for.

When I’ve written about other things eg things in NHS I’ve given the headlines, said I feel extremely strongly about it and said something along the lines of “I know you are fully aware of the issues that others have written to you about in much more detail…” but have made it clear it’s important. They don’t take template letters as seriously as individually written ones.

I think @noblegiraffe looks like she’s writing something for you, but happy to also share some things later!

Original poster
noblegiraffe · 02/04/2023 12:00

I'm basically just going to put together a bunch of links and discussion points around issues in education for people to pick bits out of.

Obviously personal experience is v important, like 'my child hasn't had a proper maths teacher for x months' or 'school had to cut x GCSE which my DC really wanted to do' or 'school now asking for £20 a month contribution to prop up budgets' or 'EHCP not being adhered to due to lack of staff' or 'child being taught by a TA for half the week' or whatever, to join the dots between the stats and real life experience.

OP posts:
bitcharming · 02/04/2023 13:52

Right I'll definitely be emailing my local mps (and my wider one) I don't know why I feel like I'm bothering them, even though their job is to represent me.

MrsMurphyIWish · 02/04/2023 14:04

Stuart Anderson voted against FSM and is an advocate of Gavin Williamson (being SW Wolves we borderline Staffs). Knob.

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