The post you are reporting:
Courtesy of the Times.
State schools are asking parents to donate hundreds of pounds each year to pay for staff salaries, repair leaking buildings and buy vital textbooks and equipment, a Times investigation has revealed.
Grammars, comprehensives and primaries are increasingly relying on families to pay for essentials and are asking for up to £1,200 per child per year. Others do not specify amounts but are receiving £100,000, some using slick campaigns that allow donors to choose what to buy. School funding was debated in parliament today after a petition on budget cuts, started by headteachers, garnered more than 100,000 signatures. Growing numbers of schools are adopting a four-and-a-half-day week to save money, with one saying last week that it would charge parents for their children to stay in school on Friday afternoons. Headteachers say they are also having to clean school toilets, sweep floors and wash up.
The Institute of Fiscal Studies said last year that, between 2009-10 and 2017-18, total school spending per pupil in England fell by about 8 per cent. Headteachers say they are being left short of funds but the government insists it is putting more money than ever into schools. The increased total funding does not take into account an increase in the number of pupils or inflation. About 700 schools responded to Freedom of Information requests sent by The Times, of which more than 200 said they had asked for parental donations in the past year. About half of those asked for specific amounts. Some requested only payments for school trips, but many said they were now using donations and Parent Teaching Association (PTA) fundraising on classroom basics. Swimming is a compulsory part of the curriculum but more than one in ten of those seeking donations asked parents to pay for lessons or transport costs. Others ask children to bring in their own stationery, glue sticks, exercise books and boxes of tissues.
Schools relying on parents to pay for capital projects said they had funded new school roofs, heating systems, a stairlift for a disabled child and replaced obsolete computer servers. Others felt forced to choose between sacking teachers and repairing classrooms — one school introduced a “staff over stuff” policy, another had a “frugality campaign”, several spoke of “belt-tightening” and one reminded staff to close doors to keep heating bills down. The highest request, for £1,260 a year per family, came from Rosh Pinah, a Jewish primary school in north London. The donations contribute towards the running costs of the school, the curriculum, security and Jewish studies. Sir Thomas Rich’s, a grammar school in Gloucester, said it received parental donations totalling £96,000 last year, which it spent on building maintenance and staffing minority subjects. On its website it appeals to alumni as well as current parents, saying: “As you are no doubt aware, funding for schools is very tight and Sir Thomas Rich’s has been hard hit, with £400,000 worth of cuts and cost increases for the academic year 2017-18 alone.” It said it aimed to raise £120,000 in that academic year and urged those connected with the school to set up regular donations. Donors can target their giving to specific projects including sport, music and science equipment.
Henrietta Barnett, a super-selective grammar in north London, said: “All costs above the basics are passed on to parents as voluntary contributions, including all trips, additional activities, even music and drama opportunities. Only essential maintenance done, school buildings are falling into disrepair. “We will have to use our reserves [from parental donations] in order to survive. We ask parents to fund science equipment and are getting parents to buy sixth form textbooks for the first time.”
The expectation of cash donations is a fairly new trend — it has always been part of the culture of faith schools, some of which were historically expected to contribute to their running costs, but has become far more widespread in the past few years. One in seven of the schools that sought parental donations said they had cut or reduced music lessons or had started charging families. About one in five had cut mental health support services, or was not able to keep up with increased demand.
A Department for Education spokesman said: “We have protected the core schools budget overall in real terms since 2010, and put an additional £1.3 billion into core schools funding across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above plans set out at the last spending review. “While there is more money going into our schools than ever before, we do recognise the budgeting challenges schools face and that we are asking them to do more. That’s why we have introduced a wide range of practical support to help schools and head teachers, and their local authorities make the most of every pound, ensuring resources are being used in the best possible way to improve outcomes for children.”
The investigation also reveals how funding cuts have forced some headteachers to take on menial jobs such as cleaning school toilets and washing up after lunch. Schools are also sacking teaching assistants, getting rid of lollipop ladies, caretakers and cleaners and axing library services and pastoral support. Headteachers reported vacuuming, unblocking toilets and coming into school in the holidays to deep-clean the school hall and polish the floor. Others have taken over receptionist duties in the morning, or are filling in for supply teachers, teaching assistants, and dinner ladies.
Of those schools that responded to Freedom of Information requests, numerous said that heads regularly provided sick cover and had to drop management duties to cover in the classroom. One head of an infant school said: “We did not replace a cleaner and now senior leadership team does the cleaning. We have cut back our spending on access to outside agencies, eg less educational psychologist time. We got rid of our lollipop lady. We have drastically cut resources. Nothing is spent unless it is vital.”