Cash cuts in education will '˜devastate' Calderdale schools - Union leader

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) and the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) claim the Government’s funding freeze per pupil, combined with the impact of inflation and employer cost increases by Government, Calderdale will lose over £10 million from their budget by 2020 and will hit both academies and local authority schools.

James Wilson, Calderdale NUT secretary said: “Local schools are already making jobs redundant, increasing class sizes, and reducing the subjects on offer to students.

“These further cuts will make it even harder for head teachers to maintain acceptable levels of staffing, and the people who will bear the brunt of this are Calderdale children, who deserve better.

“We urge local parents to spread the word about these shocking cuts amongst their friends and neighbours, and join in the campaign for properly funded local schools.”

A new campaign website has been launched by the unions called School Cuts. It shows how all schools in England could be affected by cuts.

In its campaign letter the unions said: “If, and when, the Government produces its own formula, the website will be amended in order to provide reflections reflecting that formula.

“We use published Department for Education data to calculate cuts to England’s primary and secondary schools over this parliament, 2015-2020.

“We used 2015/16 funding at the baseline. We calculated the impact of the cash freeze on per pupil income, the proposed cut to the Education Services Grant, and the proposed introduction of a National Funding Formula.”

Accorind to the website the Halifax Academy is projected to lose nearly £900,000 or 15% of its budget, which is the equivalent of the average salary of 24 full time teachers.

Sowerby Bridge High School is also set to lose over 10% of its budget, equivalent to 14 full time teachers.

For primary schools, which due to their smaller size will find it even harder to absorb these cuts, the situation is even bleaker said Mr Wilson.

“Warley Road Primary School, Mount Pellon Primary Academy and Beech Hill School, which serve some of the most deprived areas in our community, are all projected to lose around £400,000, or 16% from their budgets, the equivalent of 10 full time teachers each.”