Schools urge parents to help plug funding gaps as costs soar
Days into the new academic year, headteachers have raised the alarm about a looming funding crisis in schools, with some parents urged to make donations and parent-teacher associations on standby to plug funding gaps for classroom essentials.
As energy bills and wage costs rise, school leaders say money from PTA fundraising efforts will be needed to cover core costs rather than “nice to have” extras. In affluent areas where PTAs are able to raise huge sums, it could even be used to save jobs and help pay bills.
Elsewhere, schools say PTAs will struggle to raise funds this winter as the cost of living crisis hits households. Simon Kidwell, the principal of Hartford Manor primary school in Cheshire, said his school would not be asking parents for additional donations. “The PTA are very, very aware that parents don’t have the same money available.”
The crisis raises the prospect of a widening gulf between schools with affluent families still able to donate money to enhance their child’s education, and those in disadvantaged areas. One finance director at a small trust in the south-east said: “I’m going to the PTA AGM in a couple of weeks’ time. Basically, the message will be: as much money as you can raise needs to come to the school. Not for specific projects … just so that we can keep our core services going.”
Staff at the trust have been removing lightbulbs, turning down the heating and working out which trips to cut in order to save money, but in the face of spiralling energy costs it is little more than tinkering. “This is an existential threat,” said the finance director, who asked that he and his trust remain anonymous.
The electricity bill of one school in the trust has jumped from £122,279 a year to £522,986 as part of
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