Funding crisis: One school asks parents to help cover shortfall as another misses out on grant

Cherwell School in Summertown has asked parents to contribute to a ‘development fund’ to improve its facilities.

It is the result of a £270,000 gap in Government money as the Department for Education has kept funding at 2010 levels, but the school faces a three per cent rise in running costs.

Headteacher Paul James said: “Ideally we would not be funding like this but we are conscious the resources are not available to us.

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West Kidlington Primary School recently missed out on funding to refurbish classrooms, with headteacher Eugene Symonds saying it hadn’t been given “a fair crack of the whip”.

The county council said it had to redirect £14m of its schools maintenance budget to cover costs in school place expansion, with Government funding not being available until 2017/18.

Mr Symonds said the classrooms faced plumbing problems, had asbestos and weak, dirty windows.

He added: “I defy anyone to be able to teach in these classrooms with what is effectively a low-level engine hum.”

School appeals to parents to help bridge a cut in funding.

A CASH-strapped school is turning to parents for help to pay for improvements after the government cut its funding.

Cherwell School in Summertown has set up a development fund to plug a £270,000 gap.

The academy receives about £9m a year from the Government but this will drop by about £100,000, despite an estimated three per cent rise in running costs.

Headteacher Paul James has been able to accommodate the £100,000 cut, but the school still needs to cover the three per cent shortfall.

Cherwell School headteacher Paul James.

He said: “Ideally schools would not be funding like this but we are conscious that because of austerity there just isn’t the funding.

“There is a national pay rise for teachers of about one per cent and with the increase in pension costs and National Insurance costs and with inflation the school’s overall costs will go up.

“The development fund will fill this gap. We are aware this approach may get a mixed reaction from parents but we hope by explaining the situation they might like to donate.”

Mr James said the school wants to expand on its 1,900 pupils by adding an extra form each year.

He said: “Cherwell is the most over-subscribed school in Oxfordshire – we feel because of the facilities we have we can’t increase our form of entry unless there is a significant grant from the Government.

“Our dining facilities, assembly hall and exam spaces are bursting – we need to improve these and also want more performing arts space and extra special needs facilities.”

Schools can apply for an improvement grant each year but Mr James said this was “not guaranteed”

and that an unsuccessful application to fix a boiler saw the school shell out £90,000 of its reserves last year.

Kidlington IT manager Martin Hepworth, whose daughter is in the sixth form, said: “The fact schools are having to create a separate fund isn’t unexpected but it is still quite sad that we are having to do this – it should come from the Government.

“If the environment is rubbish they will be less motivated and interested in the most important learning years of their lives.”

Oxfordshire County Council cabinet member for education Melinda Tilley said: “If Cherwell need to do that, it’s a pity.”

It comes as the headteacher of West Kidlington Primary School said its classrooms were falling into disrepair as money was instead spent to satisfy new school places by the council.

The Department for Education (DFE) announced in February Oxfordshire County Council would get £19m for the expansion of schools to ease the pressure on places.

But the cash is not available until 2017/18 and the council has had to take £14m from its maintenance budget to pay for increasing school places.

West Kidlington Primary School was among schools that missed out on a recent funding bid to refurbish its classrooms.

According to headteacher Eugene Symonds, it has meant facilities at the school have been riddled with plumbing problems, asbestos and weak and dirty windows.

Mr Symonds said: “It’s massively frustrating, I defy anyone to teach effectively in these classrooms with what is effectively a low-level engine hum.”

County council spokesman Owen Morton said: “The council has an obligation to ensure sufficient school places for Oxfordshire children and that must remain our highest priority.”

He said the council was in discussions with Mr Symonds regarding the issues raised.

A DfE spokesman said: “All local authorities are receiving the same initial basic amount per pupil as in 2010.

“Schools in Oxfordshire will also receive an extra £3.56m as we allocate an additional £390m to the least fairly funded areas in the country. Since April 2010, Oxfordshire County Council has received £35m of funding support for maintaining and improving its school buildings.

“By April 2015, we will have spent £6.25bn, including over £46.9m in Oxfordshire, to support disadvantaged children through the pupil premium.”

Fight is on to save scheme that helps teenagers.

Cherwell School’s social engagement leader Julie Stuart-Thompson, right, who has started a petition against the withdrawal of funding for the Giving Nation scheme, with pupil and head of the school’s Chicken Project, Charly Pressdee, 17 Picture: Damian Halliwell.

STAFF and pupils at Cherwell School are calling on the Government not to scrap funding for a scheme that helps teenagers support causes they care about.

The Giving Nation (GN) scheme, government-funded, encourages youngsters to improve the lives of others, both in the UK and around the world, by raising cash and awareness.

At Cherwell School pupils have used GN funding to set up the Chicken Project, which has helped set up chicken farms in deprived parts of south Africa and Cameroon.

But the Government announced earlier this year it is to pull the funding for the scheme and put it into the National Citizenship Service (NCS), which offers summer projects for 15-17 year-olds.

Cherwell School’s social engagement leader Julie Stuart-Thompson has started a petition on change.org, which so far has 567 signatures to try to persuade the government to keep back some of the money.

She said: “This is about youngsters across the UK.”

Oxford East MP Andrew Smith has signed the petition and plans to raise the issue at Government level.