Swindon school underfunding is a scandalous, life-scarring outrage
The head teacher of The Commonweal School has announced cuts to teaching and courses, placing much of the blame on unfunded staff pay increases
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When the only morally acceptable response from those holding the purse strings is: “We will end this grievous, shameful scandal immediately.”
By Barrie Hudson
It is fairly well known that certain stimuli can make the recipient literally quake with anger.
For a mere document to have that visceral effect is rare, but such an instance arose in Swindon last week.
The document in question was a letter sent to parents and carers by Charles Drew, headteacher of The Commonweal School in Old Town. It revealed a scandalous state of affairs whose impact, unless immediate action is taken, is likely to be felt by many of its young victims throughout their lives.
Under the heading School Finances, Mr Drew began by writing: “School Budgets have reduced significantly in real terms over recent years. The Government have several times awarded pay increases to school staff that haven’t been fully covered by extra funding. In addition, inflation has driven up other costs. We are in a better position than many schools, thus far we have managed the financial situation without significant visible cuts to provision. However, this is no longer possible.
“This year the government are once again proposing to award school staff pay rises without providing additional funding to schools. We welcome school staff being paid better. Our staff do an outstanding job and pay has not kept pace with inflation for the last decade or more. However, further unfunded pay increases are not manageable without a visible impact on provision. I am writing to you now to let you know about the difficult choices we are having to make.”
Mr Drew then lists seven cuts covering various aspects of school life. It is a diverse array but what they have in common is that the children and young people likely to suffer most are those who have already been dealt a hand in life which is in some way disadvantageous.
The first of these cuts is: “A reduction in the number of teachers. Resulting in some larger classes, especially in Key Stage 4 and C6.”
This will, of course, impact every student in the classes affected, as having larger classes, no matter how dedicated and determined their teachers, means less attention for each individual pupil, less help for pupils who may be struggling and, for that matter, less help for pupils who are doing fairly well but could do better in the right environment.
As with so many of these instances, students who come from disadvantaged families will suffer the most. For the more fortunate students, should they need extra help, there is always the possibility of private tuition, whether because their parents can comfortably afford it or because their parents are able to afford it only by scraping together every spare penny and forgoing expenses such as holidays.