100 signatures reached
To: West Sussex MP Nick Gibb MP & Schools Minister (and all ministers of the Department for Education)
Nick Gibb MP, West Sussex Pupils should not be worth less
I urge Bognor Regis and Littlehampton MP and Schools Minister Nick Gibb to support and assist in achieving this essential interim funding for our schools in West Sussex and call on the department of Education to provide the extra £20m funding requested for April 2017 by the Headmasters of our schools through the "WorthLess West Sussex" Campaign.
Why is this important?
Put frankly, finances in our West Sussex Schools are at breaking point. If nothing is done there will be severe consequences for our children. Currently headmasters across our county are having to consider and actively plan to take any of the following measures to make ends meet:
• Modified opening hours/days
• Increasing class sizes even further
• Reductions in cleaning
• Non-replacement of staff when they leave/retire
• A halt in all investment in books and IT
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Did you know:
• West Sussex is one of the lowest funded council in the country
• West Sussex currently gets between £40m - £200m less than other regions for Education
• In nearby Brighton & Hove each school receives £300 per pupil premium if they don't speak english as a first language. West Sussex schools get no extra funding for this.
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Nick Gibb MP (for Bognor Regis & Littlehampton, West Sussex)
The response from Nick Gibb has been very disappointing to both the headmasters and his constituents so far.
In a letter to a local Head Teacher, dated 2 November 2016, West Sussex MP Nick Gibb (Minister for Schools) wrote:
“In 2015- 16 we made a step towards fairer funding by adding £390m to the schools budget, targeted at the least fairly funded authorities, including West Sussex. The additional funding for West Sussex was included in their baseline in 2016-17 and is protected for 2017-18.”
In this reply Mr Gibb MP doesn’t appear to be acknowledging the funding crisis in this reply. Especially since the £390m mentioned, West Sussex schools received less than £1m (£930k).
This represents an increase of less than £10 per child across West Sussex.
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The Worthless? West Sussex Campaign
Head Teachers in West Sussex are currently running to campaign to gain additional interim funding of £20million beginning in the financial year, April 2017 with the Worthless? West Sussex Campaign for fairer funding.
They need to do this because of long years of under funding by West Sussex County Council, which has now been compounded by the low level being carried over to the funding now allocated directly from Westminster.
In their latest letter they said that despite the assistance of some West Sussex MPs and an debate in parliament (Nick Gibb was not in attendance).
You can watch here: http://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/9b387b6d-28f4-4e0b-9d87-ffd64d3ed678?utm_source=petition&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=167761&utm_content=Parliament%20TV
You can find out more about the WorthLess? West Sussex Campaign on facebook: www.facebook.com/WorthLessWestSussex
How it will be delivered
I plan to hand it to Mr Nick Gibb in his office in Bognor Regis
