School funding cuts shouldn't deny children a full and varied education

School funding is being cut - there's little doubt about that.  Funding changes and increased costs mean schools in Reading have less money with which to provide your children with an education. The newly formed National Education Union have said:

Since 2015, schools in England have had their funding per pupil frozen while inflation and other costs rise, leading to an effective £2.8 billion real-terms cut.

Campaigning with the National Union of Teachers in October last year for investment in education, not cuts.

Talking to parents and teachers in Reading it's clear that these cuts are having a significant impact on schools.  Some departments are having their funding slashed.  I was talking to some art teachers last week who are struggling to buy supplies because there's little budget for them.

I know schools are reducing the number of teaching assistants they employ to save money.  This is denying children who require support, but do not have an Education, Health and Care plan, the help they need to thrive.

There is a Reading secondary school that has apparently cancelled work experience because they can't afford it!

How can we forget there is a school in Reading which wrote to parents asking for money to plug its funding gap?

Parents are being asked to pay for more and more of the activities that would have been covered by the school in previous years and this is while parents are facing their own budget struggles.  How long is this sustainable?  Will we see trips, cultural experiences and extra-curricular activities  disappear?  Will the curriculum be limited to only classroom based learning?

Each of these cuts is impacting on education.  Each extra activity that parents have to pay for is putting pressure on household budgets.  Each subject lost through budget cuts is a lost opportunity for our children to receive a full and varied education.

The Conservative government must review the way it's funding schools before our children are priced out of a full and varied education.

As Angela Rayner MP, Shadow Education secretary, said on a recent visit to Reading "It should be on the ability of the child to learn, not on the ability of the child's parents to pay."

From www.labour.org.uk/education

Lifting the public sector pay cap - just not good enough!

So Ministers will now have the opportunity to allow pay awards to public sector workers above the 1% pay cap currently in place.  Police officers will get a 1% pay rise and 1% unconsolidated 'bonus', which is a one off payment which is not carried forward into next years pay.  Prison officers get 1.7%.  What about the rest? Nurses, doctors, teachers, firefighters, civil servants and council staff?

Public sector pay rises have been way below inflation since 2010.  Any pay rise below inflation is effectively a pay cut - your wages are not keeping pace with the cost of living and your 'buying power' reduces meaning your money has to stretch further and further.

From Jereny Corbyn's Facebook page

This is not sustainable nor is it fair.  The lifting of the cap does nothing to address the fact public sector wages have fallen behind inflation year after year.  It does nothing to address the fact we now have nurses using food banks.  It does nothing to address falling living standards while food, rent, utility bills and fuel costs go up.

It is expected the paltry pay rises will come from existing budgets so where will the money be moved from?  What cuts will we see to fund these pay rises?They should be funded by a government that appreciates its workers.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn said at TUC conference in Brighton "A pay cut is a pay cut. We must be united in breaking the pay cap for all workers."

I am a trade unionist and you have my support. Public or private sector, we workers deserve decent pay!

At the March for the NHS earlier this year with mu union, Unite.