• I AM a mum of three. My children go to Gillespie Primary School in Highbury. I love our school. My kids are happy, but I am sad. And here’s why.

After two years of budget cuts, our school has had to make some difficult financial decisions. I notice the gaps.

Seeing a whole class of nine-year-olds play the violin together was incredible. The violins have gone. The school can no longer participate in the Music First programme.

The friendly faces of our two advisors in the playground who supported our first-generation Turkish and Somali families. Gone.

An elderly lady who came into school every week to sit with children and help them with their reading. Gone. The school can no longer fund Beanstalk reading volunteers.

These cuts already harm our school and the next round will be worse.

We have been told to expect cuts to the frontline of our school – two teachers by 2020. In a single-form intake school, this is devastating.

I have read a lot about redistributing funds across schools in England to make the system fairer. I am sure everyone would agree things need to be fair. However, having read that 98 per cent of schools in England will actually suffer real-term budget cuts by 2020, I am struggling to do the
maths.

The reality is that the costs of running schools are rising. Increases in pension and National Insurance contributions all have to be met out of existing budgets.

Schools across the country are facing the largest cuts to budgets in a generation. Now is the time for the government to stick to its manifesto promise of maintaining school funding levels.

That’s why, like me, parents are coming together and speaking out. Our children need us to – the maths doesn’t add up.

VICKY HATCHETT
N4