Budget cuts set to affect almost every Greater Manchester school

Almost every school in Manchester is set to be affected by budget cuts, between now and 2020, Key 103 can reveal.

We have been speaking to the NAHT Union, who have called an urgent meeting of Headteachers from across the North West, in the city centre this Friday.

Of the 624 schools across Greater Manchester, 606 are set to lose funds over the next two years.

Headteachers have described how their schools are now at 'breaking point' as a result of redundancies, record class sizes and cuts to funding.

School leaders, teahcers and governors from across the North West are due to join MPs, parents and delegates to discuss the impact cuts are having on schools.

Paul Whiteman, from the Union, said:Paul Whiteman commented: “Government funding is not keeping pace with inflationary pressures resulting in real terms funding cuts. Schools are falling into debt. There is a real concern that this will soon have a negative impact on children and education. Class sizes have risen, and schools have already had to cut teaching staff, reduce extra support for children, and even shorten the school week.”

Samantha Offord, head teacher of Birchfields Primary School in Manchester, said: “I’ve been a head teacher for 17 years. I’ve always had to be careful and manage my budget for the benefit of the children. But over the last few years we have not seen any increase in our budgets, not even in line with inflation.

“We made economies but in 2014 we could see our budget would fall off a cliff unless we did something drastic. We let 9 TAs go and made 5 teachers redundant. We thought that surely that would be enough but in 2017 we had to make 13 lunchtime staff redundant and reduce the hours for the others.

“There’s been a lot of talk recently of excessive workloads, and yes, every member of staff at my school is working harder as they take on the workload of those we’ve had to let go. When our budgets are cut by 10% or more with the new funding formula I quite simply do not know where I can cut that won’t have a life-changing negative impact on a generation of children.”

We have contacted the Department for Education for a statement, but have not heard anything yet.