CONCERNED Malvern headteachers fear they cannot offer students the best possible education until a solution is found to fairer school funding.
Mike Gunston and Lindsey Cooke spoke out after lending their support to a county-wide call for parents to join their bid for a better deal for Worcestershire’s secondary schools after revealing funding per pupil had fallen by eight per cent in the past eight years.
The Worth Less national campaign is being led on a local level by neighbouring Droitwich Spa High School headteacher Natalie Waters and many of the county’s headteachers will make the trip to London next Friday (September 28) to lobby their MPs for a fairer deal.
In a letter to parents and carers of students at Dyson Perrins CE Academy and Hanley Castle High School, Mr Gunston and Mrs Cooke have joined forces with their fellow school chiefs to warn parents they cannot prevent another year of belt tightening from affecting secondary school children with larger classes, few study options and less support for the most vulnerable all now on the timetable.
System
The letter does recognise a new method for allocating Government money across the country has been a step towards a fairer system.
However, the headteachers insist the gap between schools in Worcestershire and those over the border in south Birmingham is still far too wide.
While both headteachers accepted the new National Funding Formula was a ‘step in the right direction’, a child in the West Midlands was substantially better funded than one of a similar age over the border in Worcestershire.
Mr Gunston said: “Dyson Perrins has been fortunate enough to have accumulated some reserves and we have been able to protect our students to some extent, but we have also had to make cuts.
“Many Worcestershire schools in this academic year have been forced to set a deficit budget.”
Mrs Cooke added unless the situation changed Hanley Castle could not provide the service for which Worcestershire schools ‘have been known for’.
“No parent needs to be reminded the secondary school years are a precious opportunity,” she said.
“They do not come again. But we do need your support in making this point emphatically to Government.”
What do you think of school funding in Worcestershire? Email [email protected] or write to us at the address on page ten of this week’s Observer.
