London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Saturday, Jul 26, 2025

‘It’s heartbreaking’: England’s school leaders on budget shortfalls

‘It’s heartbreaking’: England’s school leaders on budget shortfalls

School leaders describe the struggle to make budgets stretch to cover soaring energy costs, growing wage bills and inflation

“In over 20 years leading schools I have never before been faced with such a shock to our budgets,” said Richard Sheriff, the chief executive officer of the Red Kite Learning Trust of 13 schools in North and West Yorkshire. “We are in the desperate position of having to look at cutting everything from school trips to teaching resources.”

Sheriff is not alone. School leaders across England have spent the past few weeks poring over their balance sheets, trying to make their budgets stretch to accommodate soaring energy costs, a growing wage bill and the impact of mounting inflation on everything.

“It’s heartbreaking,” said Vic Goddard, the CEO of Passmores Cooperative Learning Community, a trust made up of four schools in Harlow, Essex. In 2022-23 the trust’s income will go up by an extra £575,000, but additional costs will be £1,062,000, leaving his schools £487,000 – nearly half a million pounds – short.

“These figures are without the ongoing inflationary increases that will happen throughout the year,” said Goddard. The cuts have already begun. The trust has already decided to halt the further rollout of devices to students; there will be no new staff appointments, no new textbooks and no replacements for classroom PCs, unless absolutely vital.

Vic Goddard: ‘There will be no new staff appointments, no new textbooks and no replacements for classroom PCs, unless absolutely vital.’


The curriculum will have to shrink to save money, squeezing out subjects like music which attract smaller numbers, and prompting a review of other “resource heavy” subjects such as photography. School trips face the chop. “We won’t be able to afford to subsidise school curriculum trips to make them accessible for all so we’ll need to cancel most of them over the year.”

Only essential repairs and maintenance will be carried out, departments will get a 50% cut in their resource budgets and the cost of school lunches may have to go up. Then there’s the issue of redundancies. “If we avoid it this academic year then we’ll need to do some next year,” Goddard says grimly.

Sean Maher, headteacher at Richard Challoner school in Kingston, is similarly bleak. “We are looking at £150,000 in excess of what we had budgeted for, just from the pay rises that have been passed on by the government. I’ve been on various WhatsApp groups, and the consensus is there’s no school in the country that’s going to be able to afford these pay rises that have been passed on unfunded.”

The only way he can fund the pay rise this year is by taking money from funds saved for planned building projects. Next year he has no way of meeting the extra bill, and if there’s no additional funding, he will have to look at redundancies.

“That’s before we start talking about the increasing cost of food, which is my biggest worry.” Last year the school canteen service was in deficit to the tune of £20,000 because of rising costs. “Food prices are only going up,” said Maher, who is having to consider increasing the cost of a lunch from £3.80 to £4.50.

“I’m really terrified about what’s going to happen to some of our parents,” said Maher. “I’ve been a headteacher for nine years. I’ve dedicated my whole professional life to trying to give young people the very best opportunity to shine and grow and develop. I feel like I’m fighting against the government who are actively undermining what we are trying to do for young people.”

The headteachers the Guardian spoke to knocked back media reports that the school week could be cut to three or four days to save money in the most extreme circumstances, but Maher did not dismiss the idea that children might have to wear more clothes in the classroom to keep warm.

“How can it come to that in this country? Where we would be asking children to wear coats and gloves in the classroom because we can’t afford the heating?” asked Maher. “But it will happen. In schools up and down the country teachers will turn round and say: ‘Keep your coat on – we won’t put on the heating until the end of November.’”

Elsewhere, headteachers say agency staff are being cut and site opening hours reduced. Staff and students are being encouraged to switch off appliances where possible and the heating will be turned down a degree or two – small savings to try to keep costs down.

Matthew Shanks, the executive principal and chief executive officer of Education South West, a multi-academy trust in Devon, said his trust was facing a 285% increase in energy costs. “We are meeting this initially from reserves. But these reserves will disappear quickly and spending them on this ultimately means we cannot use them to provide the additional support needed for children in the classroom.

“Add this increase to the unfunded increase in pay and there will not be sufficient funding to operate as we currently do in the future unless we make cuts.”

Sheriff agrees. “The budget shortfall we face will push our successful trust into a deficit position even if we use up all our reserves. This will leave us extremely vulnerable in following years and is likely to lead to us having to make significant changes to how we deliver our service in years to come.

“The expectation that schools will deliver a rich and broad curriculum will need to be adjusted, I doubt this new offer will meet the aspirations and needs of our children and families.”

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Deputy attorney general's second day of meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell has concluded
Controversial March in Switzerland Features Men Dressed in Nazi Uniforms
Politics is a good business: Barack Obama’s Reported Net Worth Growth, 1990–2025
Thai Civilian Death Toll Rises to 12 in Cambodian Cross-Border Attacks
TSUNAMI: Trump Just Crossed the Rubicon—And There’s No Turning Back
Over 120 Criminal Cases Dismissed in Boston Amid Public Defender Shortage
UN's Top Court Declares Environmental Protection a Legal Obligation Under International Law
"Crazy Thing": OpenAI's Sam Altman Warns Of AI Voice Fraud Crisis In Banking
The Podcaster Who Accidentally Revealed He Earns Over $10 Million a Year
Trump Announces $550 Billion Japanese Investment and New Trade Agreements with Indonesia and the Philippines
US Treasury Secretary Calls for Institutional Review of Federal Reserve Amid AI‑Driven Growth Expectations
UK Government Considers Dropping Demand for Apple Encryption Backdoor
Severe Flooding in South Korea Claims Lives Amid Ongoing Rescue Operations
Japanese Man Discovers Family Connection Through DNA Testing After Decades of Separation
Russia Signals Openness to Ukraine Peace Talks Amid Escalating Drone Warfare
Switzerland Implements Ban on Mammography Screening
Japanese Prime Minister Vows to Stay After Coalition Loses Upper House Majority
Pogacar Extends Dominance with Stage Fifteen Triumph at Tour de France
CEO Resigns Amid Controversy Over Relationship with HR Executive
Man Dies After Being Pulled Into MRI Machine Due to Metal Chain in New York Clinic
NVIDIA Achieves $4 Trillion Valuation Amid AI Demand
US Revokes Visas of Brazilian Corrupted Judges Amid Fake Bolsonaro Investigation
U.S. Congress Approves Rescissions Act Cutting Federal Funding for NPR and PBS
North Korea Restricts Foreign Tourist Access to New Seaside Resort
Brazil's Supreme Court Imposes Radical Restrictions on Former President Bolsonaro
Centrist Criticism of von der Leyen Resurfaces as she Survives EU Confidence Vote
Judge Criticizes DOJ Over Secrecy in Dropping Charges Against Gang Leader
Apple Closes $16.5 Billion Tax Dispute With Ireland
Von der Leyen Faces Setback Over €2 Trillion EU Budget Proposal
UK and Germany Collaborate on Global Military Equipment Sales
Trump Plans Over 10% Tariffs on African and Caribbean Nations
Flying Taxi CEO Reclaims Billionaire Status After Stock Surge
Epstein Files Deepen Republican Party Divide
Zuckerberg Faces $8 Billion Privacy Lawsuit From Meta Shareholders
FIFA Pressured to Rethink World Cup Calendar Due to Climate Change
SpaceX Nears $400 Billion Valuation With New Share Sale
Microsoft, US Lab to Use AI for Faster Nuclear Plant Licensing
Trump Walks Back Talk of Firing Fed Chair Jerome Powell
Zelensky Reshuffles Cabinet to Win Support at Home and in Washington
"Can You Hit Moscow?" Trump Asked Zelensky To Make Putin "Feel The Pain"
Irish Tech Worker Detained 100 days by US Authorities for Overstaying Visa
Dimon Warns on Fed Independence as Trump Administration Eyes Powell’s Succession
Church of England Removes 1991 Sexuality Guidelines from Clergy Selection
Superman Franchise Achieves Success with Latest Release
Hungary's Viktor Orban Rejects Agreements on Illegal Migration
Jeff Bezos Considers Purchasing Condé Nast as a Wedding Gift
Ghislaine Maxwell Says She’s Ready to Testify Before Congress on Epstein’s Criminal Empire
Bal des Pompiers: A Celebration of Community and Firefighter Culture in France
FBI Chief Kash Patel Denies Resignation Speculations Amid Epstein List Controversy
Air India Pilot’s Mental Health Records Under Scrutiny
×