Labour protest at proposed £4.3million cuts to Wyre Forest Schools (114 teachers could lose jobs)

20th March, 2017

The Tory Government is imposing real terms funding cuts by freezing per-pupil funding while inflation and costs increase. The most deprived areas will be hit hardest.

The Education Policy Institute research found that under the proposed new formula even those schools which the government has said would benefit, would be worse off. This was because of inflation, reductions in local authority funding, and the £3billion worth of education savings that schools must make by 2019-20.

Using Government statistics, it is clear that even after the new Formula has been introduced, all schools in the Wyre Forest area will be worse off in real terms by 2020. The average real terms budget cut will be 9.5% in primary schools and 8.7% in secondaries.

For example, in Kidderminster, Birchen Coppice Primary will lose £250,000 or the equivalent of 7 teachers, whilst Baxter College will be £331,000 worse off equivalent to 8 teachers; and schools in Stourport and Bewdley will not fare any better with Bewdley School set to lose £303,000 meaning 8 teachers, with Stourport High School losing a whopping £741,000 which is 17 teachers.

Schools are already struggling with their finances. Budgets have been cut to the bone, class sizes have increased, subjects have been dropped from the curriculum and materials and resources are scarce. All this comes at a time of soaring pupil numbers and a developing crisis in teacher recruitment and retention. Not to mention the loss of arts subjects like dance, drama and music in many schools.

The current Government was elected on a manifesto that promised to protect school funding. It seems we are about to witness another broken Tory manifesto pledge.

Stephen Brown said “Schools in Wyre Forest are set to be hit hard by yet more Government cuts. Cuts that ironically Wyre Forest MP Mark Garnier campaigned for in 2015/2016 under the guise of a fairer funding formula after getting local schools and parents to support him. Our MP is a fraud, he claims to stand up for Wyre Forest but the growing evidence is quite the opposite, he clearly has no idea what he’s doing and I think those local schools and parents now have a right to be very angry. He’s even boasting about this nonsense on his website. He continually supports policies detrimental to our communities. We’d like Mark Garnier to explain how education cuts totalling some £4.3million in Wyre Forest and thanks to his campaign, are going to improve our children’s life chances? It is a fact that 28% of our residents already have no qualifications. We should be championing education to improve our children’s prospects not destroying them. Worcestershire is already 123rd out of 151 councils in the school funding tables and this will make things worse. This is how a Tory Government rewards its own MP’s and constituencies, by robbing kids of their education for daring to speak up. Meanwhile, the Government has got money to throw at pet ideological projects like divisive new Grammar and Free schools to the tune of £320million, now we know where that money is coming from. They should be supporting what we already have. It’s a disgrace”.

You can see the exact funding cuts to each school where you live here:
http://www.schoolcuts.org.uk

How will your local school be affected by funding cuts?

Education funding crisis as every secondary school faces losing six teachers due to Tory cuts

All state schools in England ‘to face funding gap by 2020’

Theresa May told her school cuts are forcing teachers to buy ‘pens, pencils and paper’ out of their own pockets

http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/pmqs-jeremy-corbyn-defeated-theresa-may-prime-ministers-question-tory-manifesto-lies-a7643466.html