School Cuts are cutting jobs - the facts for London Local Authorities

"Real terms cuts to school funding since 2015 have led to a big reduction in the number of secondary teachers, teaching assistants and support staff in England, says research published today by the School Cuts alliance of education unions ... Staff numbers in secondary schools have fallen by 15,000 between 2014/15 and 2016/17 despite having 4,500 more pupils to teach. This equates to an average loss of 5.5 staff members in each school since 2015"- read the NEU press release here.

 

Download this article - and the London LA data - as a flyer via https://goo.gl/yKyVt7

Make sure every Londoner knows about school cuts when they vote in this May’s elections

 
During last year’s General Election, NUT campaigning helped to make school cuts a key issue in voters’ minds.
The now departed Secretary of State, Justine Greening, was forced to announce that she had found additional funding for schools. However, while a small amount of redirected education funding was won for schools, the reality is that school cuts will still be biting hard. 

£2.8 billion has already been cut from schools since 2015. Worse is to come, with nine out of every ten schools facing a further real terms cut in per pupil funding from 2015 to 2019.

DfE figures confirm just how many jobs have been cut

 
We now have another chance to get our message across. That’s because, on 3 May 2018, all London council seats are up for re-election.

We’ve also got new facts to give - not just about the cuts that are going to happen in the future but about the disastrous effect that school cuts have had already. Our latest research - drawn solely from Government figures - shows funding cuts have already meant job cuts. 

 
In secondary schools, staff numbers nationally have fallen by 15,000. London’s secondary schools have, on average, each had to cut five members of staff in the last two years alone. An even greater workload falls on the remaining staff, driving even more teachers out of the profession. Remember, less than half of England's teachers last more than ten years in the job already. Our research also confirms that pupil teacher ratios have been rising too. This means higher class sizes and less individual attention for children.

We can't let these cuts continue. Young people only get one chance at school and we know that education cuts never heal. That’s why we must build the campaign against school cuts and make sure that every candidate knows that voters are expecting them to back our call for investment in education.

Build the Campaign

• Our latest research from the workforce data is being released to the press in early February and backed up by a social media campaign and messages to NEU members. 
• Every NUT Division should be making plans to call a meeting - preferably in a supportive school - to bring together campaigners to plan activities.
• Model materials will be produced to help build the meeting and, most important of all, to encourage attendees to go away and organise their own parents’ mini-meetings in primary schools and in their local communities.
• We will be building towards a national day of action - with stunts, mass leafleting, street stalls and local demonstrations - to be held at the end of April.
• With the local elections in mind, the London Region will be particularly asking members to help campaign in key battlegrounds like Barnet, Wandsworth and Kensington & Chelsea where we can get most publicity for our message.