Parents, Teachers and Children March for Education Funding
On Saturday 7 September 2019 Henley came together to march for increased funding in education.
The speakers were co-organiser Cllr Michelle Thomas; MP for Henley John Howell; Tim Hoskins Headteacher of Badgemore Primary School; Catharine Darnton, Headteacher of Gillotts School and Satwant Deol, Principal of the Henley College.
The march was attended by hundreds of parents, teachers, grandparents and concerned citizens who all signed a giant letter to Prime Minister Boris Johnson, former MP of Henley. We hope to deliver this letter personally to No. 10 Downing Street soon.
The march was the lead story on BBC South Today.
On Monday 15 July 2019 a coalition comprising of the Campaign for Fairer Funding in Education (f40,) the National Education Union, the Association of School and College Leaders and the National Association outlined the funds needed to reverse the long term education cuts.
Table of Additional funding required on actual 2019/20 allocation (£54.04bn) against Government pledge announced on 30th August 2019:
| Year | Required | Pledged |
| 2019/20 | 3.0bn | zero |
| 2020/21 | 6.37 bn | 2.6 bn |
| 2021/22 | 9.71 bn | 4.8 bn |
| 2022/23 | 12.63 bn | 7.1 bn |
| 2023/24 | 16.75 bn | |
| 2024/35 | 21.11 bn |
You can immediately see why the teaching community and education groups have come together to say “It’s a start, but it’s not enough”.
Additionally there has been no announcement on educational infrastructure (buildings) and how to fund them. For example, Gillotts Schools capital budget has been slashed from £80k to £18k per annum which is not where near enough for the size and condition of the estate and buildings.
Keep in touch by joining the Together For Education Henley Facebook group.