During the General Election campaign last June I shouted long and loud about proposed funding cuts for schools in Bournemouth West. Sadly I wasn’t elected but the issue didn’t go away.


Figures released by Justine Greening, Conservative Secretary of State for Education have shown our local schools being hit very hard. Here are some examples of how much our schools in Bournemouth West are going to suffer under this Tory government.

• St Michael’s is set to lose £104.9k by 2020. This equates to a reduction of £170 per pupil and could result in the loss of two teachers.
• Talbot Primary will lose £210.1 k. This is massive cut of £407 per pupil and up to 4 teachers lost!
• At Heathlands the reduction is £490 per pupil with 2 teachers going
• Elm Academy loses £394 per pupil and up to 4 teachers.

Worst hit of all is Kingsleigh Primary who stand to lose a massive £428,700. This means a reduction of £715 being spent per pupil and could mean that 10 teachers lose their jobs!

This raises the genuine prospect of local schools being forced to close.

These cuts are outrageous and the handful of Liberal Democrats in parliament will do all they can to fight to stop them happening. We hope that Labour’s MPs will join in that fight rather than sit on their hands as they have done in other areas since the general election.

If you are worried about these cuts, write to Conor Burns, your Member of Parliament. Find out what he will do to protect our schools. He pledged to stand up for our schools during the election campaign so now it’s time to hold him to his word.