School funding in England has hit rock bottom—schools have lost £4.5 billion in real-terms cuts in 16 years.

Teaching unions and parent and governor groups today cautioned the incoming Prime Minister and Chancellor on the desperate legacy they have inherited in the education budget.

Exclusive new data released on the influential School Cuts website shows 1,323 schools have experienced over £1m in budget cuts since 2010 with 92% of secondary schools worse off than in 2010.

In a brand new report, also launching today, the coalition explains that a generation of students have known nothing but cuts, and conditions in schools continue to deteriorate. In the last year alone cuts have deepened by £300m.

A perfect storm of resourcing pressures are bearing down on school leaders:

● Crumbling buildings: conditions are desperate — 66% of teachers report working in buildings with rain leaks (11% severe), 29% report leaks of sewage or wastewater, and 40% report signs of vermin or pests in their workplaces. 84% of teachers find their students are impacted by overheating of school buildings.

● Reduced staffing: after a decade of working under chronic underfunding, one in four teachers leave the profession within the first three years. One in three within five years.

● Increased workload: teaching staff face increased workloads due to reduced numbers, leading to stress and burnout. Headteachers report having to double as caretakers, lollipop people and canteen staff to fill in support role gaps.

● Resource and curriculum cuts: less money for essential learning materials, textbooks, and equipment, with some schools forced to shed entire subjects

The organisations behind the School Cuts campaign are calling for action at the upcoming Autumn Budget to begin to restore the £4.5bn lost from school budgets since 2010.

Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders' union NAHT, said: "We continue to hear from school leaders who tell us just how difficult the financial situation is in their schools and how this harms their ability to deliver the education children deserve.

“The reality is that funding is failing to keep pace with rising cost pressures. We know that the new Prime Minister and Secretary of State are ambitious for education, but this ambition must be matched with the resources schools desperately need."

Daniel Kebede, general secretary of the National Education Union, said: “It’s a national scandal to have a generation of children that have only known cuts. Pupils leaving England’s school system today will have been taught in crumbling classrooms from reception to secondary and missed out on life-changing subjects like art and music.

They’ve seen teachers and school staff driven to burn out from teaching some of the biggest class sizes in Europe. We need a fresh start — the new Prime Minister and Chancellor must begin the work of properly restoring funding and turn the page on 16 years of cuts.”

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of ASCL (the Association of School and College Leaders), said: “It is not just that funding has failed to keep pace with costs that is the problem, but also the fact that the expectations on schools and colleges have increased relentlessly at the very same time.

"Senior leaders and their staff are left having to make impossible decisions on where to make the next round of cutbacks, and are on their knees trying to do ever more with ever less. Politicians must be more realistic and ensure that our shared ambitions for education are matched by resources.”

Emma Balchin, chief executive officer of National Governance Association, said:  "As leaders and governing boards fight a long-term legacy of persistent funding constraints, a new era of rapidly increasing levels of societal challenges and falling pupil numbers makes the situation far more challenging.

"While we applaud the government's ambition for a sustainable and thriving system, that vision simply cannot be achieved without strategic investment today and in the years ahead.”

Julie Simpson, a headteacher in Thornbury and Yate, said: “Our buildings are deteriorating at an alarming rate because we do not have enough money to keep up with general repairs. We are forced to choose between building maintenance and essential utility bills. We can no longer provide the high quality education our children deserve.”

Ahad Ali, a teacher in London, said: “Yearly budget cuts have severely reduced Special Educational Need (SEN) provisions. Students who previously received one-on-one support or external booster classes are now missing out on these essential services.

"As a result, many are entering mainstream classrooms without fundamental reading and writing skills, making it even harder for them to succeed. It is increasingly common for non-specialists to teach specialist subjects in many schools. Parents must be aware of the severe consequences this has on the quality of education.”

Tara Chavda, a teacher in Bedfordshire, said: “As a parent and a teacher serving over 25 years I have seen first hand how badly cuts year on year have affected students and how the country is hemorrhaging good teachers who cannot do their jobs effectively because of the current climate.

"No resources, no support in class or at unstructured times for SEND pupils, crumbling classrooms, rooms unfit to work all day in — and the list goes on. It's not good enough.”

Ruth Hall, a teacher in Seaham, said: “We never have enough resources - exercise books, glues, photocopying. Everything is strictly rationed and we still run out before the end of the year. I often spend my own money on stationery.

"Experienced staff members are leaving at an alarming rate, creating a significant knowledge gap for new trainees due to the lack of seasoned mentors. Replacing these teachers has proven extremely difficult due to low salaries and overwhelming workloads.”

ENDS

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Stop School Cuts

The Stop School Cuts campaign is a non-partisan coalition led by educators, parents, and school staff dedicated to securing adequate funding for every school in England. The Stop School Cuts website (established in 2016) is run by the National Education Union, NAHT and ASCL and supported by ParentKind and the National Governance Association. The website shows the impact of government funding decisions on every mainstream school in England. Parents, teachers, school support staff, governors and the general public can use the website to search the statistics for their school.

Our methodology

Our terminology of ‘mainstream school’ includes all state funded schools. It does not include nursery schools, special schools, pupil referral units, alternative provision, sixth form colleges, further education colleges, and hospital schools. You can read more about this here.

Key Statistics

● 14,053 schools (74%) in England have less real-terms funding than in 2010.

● 1 million children are in class sizes of 30 or more.

● 70% of primary and 92% of secondary schools are impacted by real-terms cuts.

● UK education spending is below 4% of GDP (OECD average is 5%).

● 1,323 schools have lost over £1m in real terms since 2010.

Data tool: To check individual school funding levels, visit schoolcuts.org.uk

Full data tables including per-school, constituency and local authority level data available on request.