Sheffield schools continue to suffer due to funding cuts despite Government plan to boost budgets, anaylsis reveals

More than 80 per cent of Sheffield schools will have less funding next year than they had five years prior.
Pupils from Watercliffe Meadows gather in Sheffields Peace Gardens to protest against government cuts to education budgetsPupils from Watercliffe Meadows gather in Sheffields Peace Gardens to protest against government cuts to education budgets
Pupils from Watercliffe Meadows gather in Sheffields Peace Gardens to protest against government cuts to education budgets

That is the stark analysis from a schools campaign group which reveals Sheffield schools will continue to suffer funding cuts despite promises by the Government of a multi-billion pound funding boost.

In an announcement earlier this year Prime Minister Boris Johnson unveiled a three-year plan to boost school budgets – rising by £2.6bn in 2020, then £4.8bn the following year, and £7.1bn the year after – following a campaign by school leaders warning of worsening budget shortages.

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But despite the claims, analysis by the School Cuts campaign has revealed that nationally 83 per cent of schools will be worse off next year than they were in 2015.

Pupils from Watercliffe Meadows gathered in Sheffields Peace Gardens earlier this year to protest against government cuts to education budgetsPupils from Watercliffe Meadows gathered in Sheffields Peace Gardens earlier this year to protest against government cuts to education budgets
Pupils from Watercliffe Meadows gathered in Sheffields Peace Gardens earlier this year to protest against government cuts to education budgets

In Sheffield, figures show that over 80 per cent of schools will have less money per pupil in 2020, in real terms, than they had five years prior.

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Twenty-six per cent of schools in the city are also set to suffer further cuts next year, facing an average loss of £129 per pupil between 2015/16 and 2020/21.

Watercliffe Meadow Community Primary School has been cut by an average £291 per pupil since 2015, with cuts equal to salaries of two teachers.

Headteachers and school leaders went to Westminster and Downing Street earlier this year to fight for fairer funding for Sheffield Schools.Headteachers and school leaders went to Westminster and Downing Street earlier this year to fight for fairer funding for Sheffield Schools.
Headteachers and school leaders went to Westminster and Downing Street earlier this year to fight for fairer funding for Sheffield Schools.
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Staff and pupils from the school in Norwood led a protest in Sheffield city centre in March campaigning against education cuts.

At the school, class sizes remain above average, rising from around 29 pupils per class in 2015 to nearly 32 in 2018, while funding is below average.

Headteacher Ian Read said: “Every day my staff go that extra mile to make a difference for our children and families and in April this year that job got even harder.

“We have always managed our budget well and spend what comes in each year on the children who are in school that year, ending up most years with close to a ‘balanced in year budget’, while maintaining a relatively healthy ‘carry-forward’. That was wiped out in April when we had to save £125,000 and ended up making six staff redundant. six good staff, all of who were doing a great job. From a workforce of 63 full time equivalent staff, that meant losing 10 per cent of staff.

Pupils from Watercliffe Meadows protesting against government cuts to education budgetsPupils from Watercliffe Meadows protesting against government cuts to education budgets
Pupils from Watercliffe Meadows protesting against government cuts to education budgets
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“This is a direct result of the effective cuts to education funding since 2010. I can’t begin to tell you the devastating impact having to lose good people who you don’t want to lose and don’t want to leave, has on a workforce.

“Anyone who has been through it as a leader or as someone affected will have a sense of what that is like. It is a demoralising process and the job of everyone who was left got immediately harder.

“Our education system is fracturing and breaking. We are already deep in a crisis because of the effective funding cuts.

“Unless a significant amount of Government money is put into schools and the services that support children, young people and families, then I dread to think what the impact will be on our future society and the cost to our economy.”

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In March Mr Read orchestrated a group of headteachers and school leaders who marched on Parliament to lobby MPs and discuss the issues around school funding.

Elsewhere Nether Edge Primary School has been cut by an average £577 per pupil since 2015, with cuts equalling the salaries of four teachers, while Hartley Brook Primary School, in Shiregreen, has been cut by an average £488 per pupil in the same period, equalling the salaries of five teachers.

The National Education Union said the school funding crisis is an issue that needs to be addressed by all candidates in the General Election on December 12.

Toby Mallinson, National Union of Teachers joint divisional secretary for Sheffield, said: “Parents, pupils and teachers are seeing every day the impact of the education funding crisis. Schools have been forced to shed staff, reduce the choice of subjects and cut resources, with many unable to afford even basic stationery.

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“Yet this Government continues to underfund and under-deliver on their responsibility to schools and the nation’s children and young people.

“We need our next Government to address the funding crisis and invest in this and future generations of young people.

“I encourage heads, teachers, support staff and parents to look at the School Cuts website to see how schools in Sheffield continue to be damaged by Government cuts.”

Last year The Star and Sheffield Telegraph joined forces with Sheffield Council, Learn Sheffield, businesses, schools, community groups and individuals to fight for fair funding for schools in the city, to launch the Fair Fund Sheffield Schools campaign.

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It came after figures revealed that schools in the city would not get ‘a fair deal' compared to other schools, receiving £743 per pupil less than Manchester in 2018/19, £589 less than Nottingham and £80 per pupil less than Leeds under the Government's national funding formula.

In terms of funding, there is an average provisional increase of just over four per cent in funding per pupil – based on last year’s pupil numbers – from the 2019/20 figures.

Pupils are predicted to get £4,845 in the 2020/21 academic year, compared to £4,624 the previous year.