There have been a number of worrying headlines in the media about school funding cuts.

School budgets across the country have been under pressure for some time. Increases in employers’ national insurance contributions and employers’ pension contributions continue to have the biggest impact so far. Senior Leaders and the Governing Body at Fielding have been grappling with the funding challenges, leading to a number of tough decisions being made. In the last 2 years we have cut our staffing costs while preserving the quality of teaching by deleting one of two Deputy Head teacher posts, reducing the size of the Admin Team and changing Nursery provision.

Our school is not alone. The National Association of Head Teachers (NAHT) has shown that more than half of school leaders felt that their budget would be untenable by 2018/19. The National Audit Office estimate a £3 billion real terms cut across all phases and in all schools.

The recent headlines have been caused by a proposed new funding formula for schools, designed to create a fairer allocation. However, as a result of the government’s changes, Fielding will lose 2.8% (£70,000) of our funding based on per pupil income by 2020.

There are a number of other changes this year (2017/18) that have reduced the amount of money that we have available to spend on pupils. Changes include transition to the new funding formula; the government's new Apprenticeship Levy; an increase in our contribution to Ealing Council because the government has cut the amount of money it gives to local authorities to run schools; and a further increase in employers’ pension contributions for support staff.

In our latest annual parent survey, some parents wanted smaller class sizes, more teaching assistants and cheaper/free after-school clubs. Looking ahead, given the real cuts to our budget, at best we will be able to maintain our current level of provision but we will not be able to increase or improve it. Cuts this year will be made by spending less money on large improvement projects, like the playground or libraries. We will also need to increase fees for childcare and specialist clubs to cover increased staffing costs.

Over time, we will work hard to ensure that cuts have the least impact on teaching possible. However, rising costs and a falling income mean that tough decisions may have to be taken. We cannot guarantee that such cuts will not impact on teaching, despite doing our upmost to prevent this.

Please be assured that we will take the utmost care with budgets, to ensure all the money we have is spent effectively on your children.

If you are concerned about the impact of government funding for schools, you may wish to:

• contact our local MPs, Virendra Sharma, Steve Pound or Rupa Huq
• share your views with Justine Greening MP, Secretary of State for Education, Email: greeningj@parliament.uk Twitter: @justinegreening
• complete the government’s latest consultation about fair funding, with an emphasis on urging the government not to decrease the level of funding per pupil for our school: https://consult.education.gov.uk/funding-policy-unit/schools-national-funding-formula2/