Exclusive by Alan Quick

RUPERT Poole, the principal of Queen Elizabeth’s School in Crediton, has written to all parents and carers of students at QE to ask them to ensure school funding is high up on the political agenda, particularly when they consider voting at the forthcoming General Election on Thursday, June 8.

Mr Poole told the “Courier” that he took to writing to parents and guardians as part of a campaign organised by heads of colleges and schools across Devon, and the other low-funded authorities.

Mr Poole wrote to the parents and guardians: “Along with up to 3,000 headteacher colleagues across 14 counties, I am writing to you in order to raise the issue of school funding and the significant current financial difficulties that all of our schools are now facing.

“During all of our campaigning work to improve funding for each and every child in each and every school, we have been careful not to become involved in a politically biased or partisan way.

“Headteacher colleagues and I feel that ahead of the forthcoming general election it is crucial that parents, carers and all other interested parties raise the issue of school funding ‘on the doorstep’ with all prospective candidates.

“It would be naïve to think that school funding is the only issue affecting everyone’s lives but school finances are in such a dreadful state that we believe that it is vital to urge you to raise it as a key issue prior to June 8.

“As professionals we are only interested in securing fair and adequate funding for the children that we educate. This is under severe threat and has influenced our decision to contact you in a collaborative manner.”

Mr Poole attached a guide document with his letter which explained that £3 billion is being withdrawn from school budgets in England, in which he states that in real terms, per pupil funding is decreasing by approximately eight per cent.

He said that recruiting teachers for specialist subjects such as maths, English, science and computer science was becoming increasingly difficult and added that some schools had been asking parents for additional financial contributions.

The effects he said were that schools could not employ high-quality teachers, class sizes were increasing, some schools were reducing the number of subjects they teach and some schools were struggling with poorly maintained classrooms and buildings.

He asked that questions be posed to prospective candidates for Members of Parliament.

This included:

• What are your priorities with regard to the allocation of funding to all schools and each pupil?

• How will you ensure that school budgets are protected in real terms for the duration of the next parliament? Please avoid telling me that more is being spent on schools; we have more children of school age than ever and costs are rising.

• Some schools are looking to create classes of 60-100 children in the school hall because they cannot afford enough teachers. What are you going to do to prevent that?

• Our children should be provided with a broad curriculum, great support and enriching activities. How will you ensure that my child has the educational experience they deserve?

• How will you ensure education for children with Special Educational Needs is adequately resourced? A large funding gap in this area is detracting much-needed funds from all schools.

Mr Poole also issued advice about the Fairer Funding for Schools campaign and where further information was available.

He said he hoped parents and guardians would find the guide to be of use and make educational funding a cornerstone of the election campaign.

He concluded: “The suggested questions could be put to any prospective parliamentary candidate so that we can all be fully informed as to the future of school funding in the very near future.”