Pursuant to Notice, a motion was moved by Councillor Pearce and seconded by Councillor David Absolom and CARRIED:

Resolved -

This Council notes that nationally:

According to the IFS:

·                Funding per pupil has fallen 8% since 2010

·                Sixth form funding has been cut by 25%

·                Local authority support is down by 55%.

·                Between 2015 and 2017 the core schools budget up to the age of 16 fell by 4%

According to the Department for Education’s own figures, more than 2,000 children in England with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) have no education provision at all.

According to the NEU:

·                88% of schools are still facing real-terms budget cuts per pupil between 2015/16 and 2019/20.

·                For the average primary school this will be a loss of £52,546 per year

·                For the average secondary school this will be a loss of £178,321 per year

In Reading according to the Schools Cuts website:

·                43 of 43 Reading schools face cuts

·                Schools will have lost £4.9m between 2015-2020

·                This equates to a £281 loss per pupil

·                Average class sizes in Reading have increased

The School Teachers Review Body recent report into teachers’ pay recommended a 3.5% pay increase for ALL teachers. This has been ignored by the Government and will further increase the recruitment and retention crisis. It will also place further pressures on Schools budgets and the Education budget as no new funding has been identified from Government.

This Council resolves to write to the education minister Damian Hinds, along with Matt Rodda, MP for Reading East and the National Education Union to ask if he will rethink the plans to further reduce spending per pupil in this Parliament.