A WEST Devon headteacher says she is facing an unprecedented funding crisis with ‘children learning in overcrowded classrooms’ and pupils with mental health problems going unsupported.

Tavistock College principal Sarah Jones said she had been forced into making cuts in support staff ‘badly needed in the school’ in order to protect core teaching posts.

She added that an extra £7.5-million being awarded to Devon schools in the Government’s Fairer Funding Formula in the autumn went ‘nowhere near far enough’ to meet extra costs being imposed on schools.

‘I have been in senior leadership in schools now for 13 years and I cannot remember a time when we were penny pinching to the extent we are now, and cutting services schools should never have to cut,’ she said.

‘We have had to make redundancies of people I should never have had to make redundant because they are absolutely needed in the school, so I can protect teaching posts in the school.

‘At the moment children are learning in overcrowded classrooms with limited resources at a time when the Government has imposed new examinations and a new curriculum, and they are not funding us adequately to be able to deliver on that.

‘Teachers’ salaries have gone up, still below inflation, but we haven’t got any more money for that. We have to find it from other places. I will not be alone in saying this, other headteachers in Devon will agree with me.’

She said she had avoided making redundancies among teaching staff but had been forced to make redundancies among support staff to avoid a deficit in the school budget from September. These included staff working with children with behavioural problems and support for children with mental health difficulties.

‘I’m down to one part-time counsellor and the school nurse used to have a drop in session once a week now it’s once a month,’ she said. ‘School isn’t just about passing exams, it is about a whole lot of things, good extra-curricula activities and mental health support, and schools need money to be able to do their job.’

The Fairer Funding Formula, which sets out how schools will be funded from the academic year of 2019/20 onwards, has been welcomed by Tavistock MP Geoffrey Cox and Okehampton MP Mel Stride, as giving a fairer deal for Devon schools. It guarantees a minimum of £3,500 for each primary school pupil and £4,800 for secondary school students.

Mrs Jones, though, said that her school is being short-changed compared with other schools in the country.

’I call it the Unfair Funding Formula,’ she said. ‘Schools in the South East were and still are getting more money than schools in Devon.’