Cumbria's election candidates are being asked to sign up to five pledges to show they are committed to education, including reversing high-profile cuts to school funding.

It comes as schools across Cumbria say they are having to lose teachers and support staff and increase class sizes as costs are rising significantly at a time when funding is being frozen.

Ministers say education funding is at an all-time high, and is set to rise further. They also say that a new funding formula will make sure the money is more fairly distributed.

But headteachers stress that pupil numbers are rising and costs escalating, meaning budgets are being slashed.

And they claim changes to the funding formula is being used as a smoke-screen when it is a separate issue.

As more schools reveal the extent the cuts will have, and how they intend to make them, politicians are coming under increasing pressure from parents, teachers and the wider community to stop the cuts. More than 1,000 people attended a recent rally in Penrith, and another is being organised by parents in Carlisle this weekend.

The Cumbrian branch of the National Association of Headteachers (NAHT) is now inviting all of the candidates in constituencies across Cumbria to sign up to five pledges.

They are

  • to fund schools fully and fairly, reversing the cuts
  • commit to a national recruitment and retention strategy
  • adopt fair methods to hold schools to account, not just exam results
  • value a broad range of subjects
  • ensure schools are supported by health and care services.

It has also set up a web page displaying the photos of all those who have signed – to date Ruth Alcroft, Jonathan Davies, Rebecca Hanson, Sue Hayman, Doug Lawson and Lola McEvoy.

Graham Frost, headteacher at Robert Ferguson School in Carlisle, was instrumental is launching the pledge campaign nationally.

He said local parents are now starting to realise what’s happening.

“It’s really gathering pace. Now, via social media, we have all these groups of parents who usually just go about their own business suddenly making quite a large noise,” he said. “The way we see it is we have a duty to let parents know what’s happening because it affects their children.”


Clem Coady Clem Coady, headteacher at Stoneraise School, added: “Parents need to know why we are in such dire straits. I was speaking to a head who had managed to avoid getting rid of staff because people have left voluntarily, but next year, by the time they paid the wage bill, they will have just £4,000 left to cover everything else.”

He said his school is losing support for speech and language, behavioural issues and for vulnerable children.

“We are losing 40 teaching assistant hours. My own kids come to this school and my son has a teaching assistant. I’ve had to decide whether to keep that or not. I’ve had to cut my own son’s teaching assistant. Those are the kind of decisions we are having to take,” he added.

“The teaching assistants we are keeping are extra English or extra maths. That’s essential, but before all this we had an extra layer of support. We know we are going backwards and it’s awful.”

Politically, Mr Coady hopes the local candidates will listen.

“I just want the MPs to stand up for us. We keep getting fobbed off.

“They [the Government] are currently putting in £40bn and are proposing to increase that to £42bn, but what they don’t tell you is that there are 450,000 more pupils in the system or projected to be in the system.

“When you explain that, they say we are scaremongering. I’m not making that up. That information is coming from the National Audit Office, the Public Accounts Committee and the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

“When you challenge it they say that they’d love to fund schools but there isn’t enough money, but they are putting £2.5bn aside to spend on free schools and £1.5bn for academies. That’s £4bn right there. Its political choice. I’m pulling my hair out.

“For me that’s the message I’m trying to get across. Whoever you vote for that’s absolutely fine and down to individuals, just make sure you are aware of all the policies and make an informed choice. Whoever our next MPs are, they have to be accountable.”


Jonathan Johnson Jonathan Johnson, chairman of the Cumbria Association of Secondary Head Teachers, said it is not just primary schools that are affected.

He has written again to schools minister Nick Gibb, stressing that the cost of running schools is rising. He adds: “We simply have less money left to resource education.”

He added that if standards slip, they will be blamed: “We cannot continue to be publicly maligned for poor performance when ministerial decisions are at the root of the problem.”

Janine Pierce, headteacher at Yarlside Primary in Barrow, is set to lose out from both overall cuts and from changes to the school funding formula. She said her school will be one of the hardest hit in the Furness area, losing roughly £95,000 over three years.

“I am extremely concerned about the cuts. Our costs aren’t going down but we have a budget cut of £11,000 this year alone. That’s going to have an impact. The first thing I am looking at is support staff, who are vital to children with higher needs and disabilities.


Janine Pierce

“We are not at a point yet where we are having to make cuts. We are fortunate that the school is full and oversubscribed.”

Asked for her message to future MPs, she said: “To look at it carefully and think about the impact of everything together.

“It’s not just our funding but the impact of cuts in other sectors – school nurses for example. Schools are having to buy back services but they are not increasing our budget. There are increasing pressures on child mental health but a lack of support.”

To date none of Cumbria’s Conservative parliamentary candidates have signed up to the pledges.

Rory Stewart, who is defending his seat in Penrith and the Border, said he has met with teachers and parents.

He said many schools in Cumbria would benefit from the new funding formula, but when asked about the real-term funding cuts, he said that the Government still has to balance its books.

Trudy Harrison, Copeland candidate, said she was a school governor and believes the figures being quoted are based on old data.

“I will not be signing the pledge as it’s based on false information, but I will be visiting every school in the constituency,” she said.