Fears Brexit will scupper education funding pledge

West Sussex has long been one of the poorest funded local authorities in the country, making it difficult for schools to balance their budgets as costs rise.

Teachers and MPs made their concerns known and, before June’s EU referendum, the government said it would introduce a more equitable national funding formula to help ease the burden.

With Theresa May taking over as Prime Minister and Justine Greening being appointed the new Secretary of State for Education, there are fears European matters will mean issues such as school funding are pushed aside.

Martin Brown, headteacher at Imberhorne School, spoke about areas he would like to see Ms Greening address as she took on her new role.

He said: “There are a few burning issues in schools at the moment that cannot be ignored. Key amongst these are the issues of funding and teacher recruitment.

“Schools all over the country are struggling with budgets that have been effectively frozen since 2010. David Cameron’s government committed themselves to delivering a national funding mechanism for 2017/18.

“We have very real concerns about the new government’s capacity to deliver this in light of the all-consuming work associated with negotiating an exit from the European Union.”

Those concerns were shared by Michael Ferry, headteacher of St Wilfrid’s School, in Crawley.

Speaking about Ms Greening, he said: “I would hope that she will ensure that the fair funding formula is implemented and that it isn’t sidelined using the exit from Europe – or anything else for that matter – as a reason, which I fear may happen. In West Sussex we are desperate for this to be implemented.”

Julian Grant, headteacher at Sackville School, said: “Everyone is, quite rightly, striving for the highest standards of achievement whilst at the same time encouraging the personal growth and development of well-rounded young citizens for the future.

“Schools must have sufficient funding to meet this vision with high quality resourcing and well supported staff. The students deserve nothing less.

“It is if the utmost importance that the revision of the national funding formula continues to be a top priority, despite the recent political changes.”

Ms Greening was appointed education secretary on Thursday (July 14) in place of Nicky Morgan, who was not popular with many teachers. She will now have to pick up the pieces following the recent teachers’ strike – and deal with the possibility of more to follow.

The issue of recruitment was also high on teachers’ list of concerns. Figures published at the end of last year showed government targets for the number of new trainee teachers in England had been missed for the third year running.