“No school leader wants to be in the position of losing teachers or support staff, but the financial situation facing schools and colleges has seldom been as grim as it is right now.
“Time and again schools are faced with increased costs but without the funding necessary to cover those costs. The latest example is the grant that is supposed to cover the increase to employer National Insurance contributions but which is seriously short in many cases – by tens of thousands of pounds.
“And the government is set to make the situation even worse by its proposal to implement a teachers’ pay award for 2025-26 without the funding necessary to enable schools to afford those costs. Its suggestion that this can be funded by further ‘efficiencies’ is for the birds. All possible ‘efficiencies’ were exhausted long ago and it is now just a synonym for cuts.
“The impact will be cuts to provision – such as pastoral support and the curriculum – and larger class sizes. It leaves schools, teachers and leaders under even more pressure to do more with less. This is not sustainable.
“The government must put this right. First, by ensuring that the teachers’ pay award is both fair and fully funded. Second, by making education a strategic priority in the multi-year spending review.
“If we fail to invest in the future of our children we are failing to invest in the future of our country. Education is key to the life chances of young people and to the economic growth which has proved so elusive.”