Austerity failing Medway primary schools

The Medway Messenger has reported that Medway primary schools are amongst the bottom ten in the country, according to Ofsted.

Cllr Clive Johnson, Medway Labour Spokesperson for Children and Young People said, ‘In my role as opposition spokesperson for Children and Young People spend I a lot of time visiting Medway schools. Hardworking staff and teachers are under immense pressure to do more work with less resource because of the financial situation imposed upon them by the Conservative government.

‘School finances are in such a dire state that even our children are participating in fundraising initiatives such as ‘floss4funding’. As a country we’re in the shameful situation where children as young as primary school age feel compelled to protest against funding shortages rather than focus on their education.

‘I urge the Conservative-run Medway council to work more closely with schools to provide the leadership they need in these difficult times. I also encourage the council and our Tory MPs to write to the government and demand extra financial support for Medway schools and children’s services, and to let Phillip Hammond aware that his diminutive budget promise of ‘little extras’ for schools is nowhere near enough to make up for the £2.5bn that has been cut from school budgets since 2015.’

Editor’s notes

Floss 4 funding: https://twitter.com/hashtag/floss4funding

Messenger article: Ofsted ranks Medway primary schools worst 10 in country