Our revelations on local school funding are shocking – read the full report below

Labour is committed to creating a unified National Education Service and moving towards cradle-to-grave learning that is free at the point of use.

STOP PRESS 12 November 2019:

Labour’s Shadow Education Secretary, Angela Rayner, announces plans to ensure everyone has access to education and training throughout their life to end skills shortages and “allow our economy to rise to the opportunities of the future”.

Labour is pledging to put vocational education on a par with university degrees and deliver a radical expansion of lifelong learning to make sure “no one is shut out of education”.

Labour’s plans will enable adults to return to study for free and ensure everyone has the time and support they need to study and retrain.

Labour will ensure that everyone can access education and training, throughout their life. We will:

• Enable any adult without A-level or equivalent qualification to attend college and study for them for free;
• Give every adult a free entitlement to six years of study for qualifications at level 4-6 (undergraduate degrees and equivalents such as Higher National Certificates and Diplomas, Foundation Degrees, Certificates and Diplomas of Higher Education in areas such as rail engineering technicians, nursing associates, and professional accounting technicians);
• Provide maintenance grants for low income adult learners to complete their courses;
• Give workers the right to paid time off for education and training;
• Give employers a role in designing qualifications to make sure training is equipping learners with the right skills;
• Support workplace learning and improve basic skills by reversing cuts to the Union Learning Fund;
• Make sure everyone has access to the information they need to return to study through a national careers advice service.

People have been held back for too long. Labour will make free education a right to ensure we have the skills we need to allow our economy to rise to the opportunities of the future.

Local school funding is in crisis. Our schools know. Staff know. Parents know. No politician has any excuse not to know what our schools are suffering.

North Yorkshire county council’s own survey this summer reveals that over the next 18 months:

• 83 per cent of NYCC schools expect to make reductions in classroom support staff
• 73 per cent expect cuts in learning resources
• 63 per cent expect to have to cut teaching staff
• 86 per cent expect to have to increase class sizes

Schools have said that the cuts forced on them will impact on curriculum choices, investment in school buildings, and establishing breakfast and after-school clubs.

The evidence is clear. On BBC Breakfast, Education Secretary Gavin Williamson described school funding as being a “bit tight”. It’s not a bit tight, Secretary of State – it’s a crisis.

The Government admits that current funding levels are inadequate. But they won’t commit to fully reverse the cuts schools have suffered since 2015.

We now have the largest class sizes in the developed world. One in 8 secondary pupils are in classes with over 30 students. How can we expect children to learn and thrive in this environment?

The most needy are the hardest hit. Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) is starved by central government of adequate funding to give children with SEND the support they need.

The results? Losses of staff, equipment and the provision required to safeguard children with the most complex needs in the classroom. It’s time to radically overhaul the way that special needs education is funded in the UK. Across the country, children with special needs are being denied full access to education. The Department for Education’s own figures show that more than 2,000 children in England with SEND are awaiting provision for their education. Pupils with urgent needs like autism and dyspraxia are left on long waiting lists, without the right support.

There are 392 nursery schools in England and every single one is under threat.

If the Government fails to take action, tens of thousands of our very youngest children will lose their place in early education. Nursery schools across England face cuts as high as 30%, or possibly closure, next year if the government doesn’t change course.

Compared with other parts of North Yorkshire, educational attainment is low in Scarborough and Whitby.  Results for our secondary schools, measured in results of grade 5 and above in English and Maths GCSEs (2019), show all but one school in Scarborough & Whitby scoring average or below average. For example:

Caedmon 38% (in the ‘average’ band)

Graham 22% (well below average)

Pindar 18% (well below average)

Scarborough UTEC 31%

Average for North Yorkshire 47%

Hundreds of dedicated and over-stretched teachers are working hard to deliver the best for Scarborough and Whitby’s children, in very difficult circumstances. But teachers and children all deserve far better, and that means adequate funding at all stages of education.

 How will Labour fix it?

Slashed funding means low attainment, and with that comes low aspiration.

Labour is committed to creating a unified National Education Service(NES) and moving towards cradle-to-grave learning that is free at the point of use.

We are pledged to:

• End academy and free school programmes and restoring local democratic accountability in education.
• Reduce inequality as a central aim of the National Education Service.
• Expand early years education and restore Sure Start so that children and families are properly supported in the critical early years.
• Adequately fund education and training at all levels…
• … and in particular ensure that learners with SEND are adequately supported.
• Provide education and training that is free at the point of use throughout life.
• End high-stakes testing in early years and primary schools.
• Reform accountability including ending the current Ofsted inspection regime.
• Remove charitable status and other tax perks from private schools.

Between 2015 and 2020 NORTH YORKSHIRE schools have lost £64.4m from their budgets

These local schools are losing out:

Source: http://schoolcuts.org.uk