Schools in the borough could lose £2.8million a year, as the government’s new schools’ funding formula slashes funding for all local schools.
As the government moves to redistribute school funding across the country, it means H&F schools will see one of the biggest government funding cuts in the country.
According to analysis by six leading teaching unions published this week, pupils in the borough will lose out by £796 a year on average, compared to 2015 funding levels.
This analysis shows the biggest losers by constituency and ranks Hammersmith constituency as eighth worst hit and Chelsea and Fulham as seventh. It shows that schools in each one of England's 533 parliamentary constituencies stand to lose out under the plan.
And that’s on top of rapidly rising costs, including the new apprenticeships levy, government-imposed increases in business rates and rising national insurance and salary contributions. In some secondary schools this could add another £300,000 to annual costs.
Extreme financial pressure
Together, teachers say, this puts extreme financial pressure on every school, undermining education standards for every child.
Peter Haylock, the executive principal of the Fulham College Academy Trust, and chair of the borough’s Schools Forum, said: “If schools’ budgets are cut, at a time when costs are increasingly significantly, it can only have a negative effect on the education that we are able to deliver.
“We will not be able to employ the number of high quality teachers and leaders that we need to be able to maintain standards.”
Following a council campaign and huge response by parents and teachers from across the borough to an earlier government consultation, the latest figures are causing serious concern in schools across London.
“It’s clear that the government is trying to redistribute a pot of funding that is just too small,” says Cllr Sue Fennimore.
“Cutting funding hardest in London, rather than giving all schools the money they need for teachers, buildings and equipment, is divisive and just plain wrong. We’re backing all our local schools and parents and are calling on the government to rethink these changes to the funding formula before the damage is done to children and young people’s education.”
The biggest losers in H&F
Secondary schools – Ark Burlington Danes Academy, London Oratory, Phoenix High, Sacred Heart.
Primary schools – Brackenbury, Wormholt Park, Holy Cross, Wendell Park, Addison, Larmenier and Sacred Heart, and Melcombe.
