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Abstract

Teachers have threatened to strike over an estimated £12.5million financial black hole that is feared will hit Islington schools in two years’ time.

Headteachers are facing a mountain of increased costs from higher contributions to national insurance and teachers’ pensions from 2019 onwards. In addition, the government’s Department for Education (DfE) wants to level up the money spent on schools across the country, though the pain for inner-city schools where extra investment has traditionally been needed to support disadvantaged children will not be as severe as initially feared.

The National Union of Teachers (NUT) estimates that by 2019 Islington schools could have £12.5m less a year to spend due to the changes – the equivalent of 337 teachers on £37,000-a-year salaries.

The union has commissioned the www.schoolcuts.org.uk website, which details the likely losses at each school.

According to its data the worst-affected school is Arts and Media School Islington, which is set to lose £995 per pupil, followed by Winton Primary School, with £842 less funding per head.

Unions fear the funding crisis will result in loss of support and teaching staff, cuts to the curriculum and extra-curricular activities, bigger class sizes and less support for children with special educational needs.

Ken Muller, assistant secretary of the Islington NUT branch, said teachers would consider going on strike to fight for increased funding.

“We are going to be talking to parents, carers and headteachers and try to get a campaign together to stop these cuts,” he said.

“But we will certainly consider taking industrial action in the event of cuts being made that affect our members’ jobs, or whether it’s about increased workload.

“But it’s not just about our jobs – teachers’ working conditions are students’ learning conditions.”

Vaughan West, GMB trade union branch secretary in Islington, said: “The impact is generally going to be further job losses for our members. Schools will inevitably look at [cutting] support staff before they start looking at teachers.”

Barrie O’Shea, head of Duncombe Primary School in Upper Holloway and chairman of the Islington Schools Forum, said the new funding formula would hit inner-city schools far less than initially feared.

Islington schools would see funding reduced by 1.5 per cent, a cut which he said would be “easily absorbable”.

But changes to pension contributions that will come into force in April 2019 could see budget pressures of 19 per cent, he said.

“The quality of teaching and learning is not going to change,” Mr O’Shea said.

“But previous funding for special needs and deprivation, that’s going to be hard to get hold of.”

A Department for Education spokesman said: “Under the proposed national schools funding formula, more than half of England’s schools will receive a cash boost in 2018-19.

“This will help to create a system that funds schools according to the needs of their pupils rather than their postcode.”