‘We cannot meet needs’: The plight of heads, in their own words

School leaders are in a “fight for the heart and soul of education”, according to the NAHT heads’ union general secretary Paul Whiteman.

Speaking at the union’s conference this weekend, he said overworked leaders and underpaid teachers can no longer afford “empty promises” from government to solve the sector’s many ills.

“We’ve been on this cliff edge for far too long, and enough is enough,” he added.

Headteachers at the conference made heartfelt and emotional pleas for change. Here’s what they had to say…

‘I’m angry education is not properly funded’

Amy Lassman, Nelson Mandela School, Birmingham

I stand before you as a very angry woman. I am angry that I’ve lost count of the number of secretaries of state that have failed us and children over the last year, never mind the last 12 years.

That I’ve had to cancel our one-day-a-week family support worker at school as we can’t afford it anymore. That I’ve had to cut educational visits to the bare minimum as parents can’t afford them and schools can’t subsidise them anymore. 

I’m angry that I have to cut corners on SEN provision as the funding is so woefully inadequate. That it’s becoming impossible to recruit or retain teachers and support staff. 

I’m angry that I have to give out food bank vouchers every day to parents and now to staff. I’m angry that I need to save money and can only do this by further reducing vital support staff. 

We all know that the issues of inadequate funding punitive and dangerous accountability measures and the recruitment and retention crisis are all inextricably linked with the erosion of our pay over the last 12 years. 

This government does not value children and young people enough to fund their education properly.

‘I’m on antidepressants’

Keith Wright, Westgate Primary School, Lancashire

“The public had been given the impression that we provide a first-class education, but they don’t understand that we’ve been provided with steerage-class resources.

“I will have lost 18 support staff in my school – they’ve gone to jobs outside of the education sector because they can’t afford to feed their families.

“They’ve gone to places like car dealerships. One’s quite assertive, she’ll probably put the sales through the roof. But she was in tears because she did not want to leave.

“I’ve got staff in tears working incredibly long hours because of vulnerable children who were told they don’t meet the thresholds for additional support or provision, but we know they fully do, or they are at risk every time

“I’ve got peers in my area that are going to call it a day because they can’t do it anymore.

“I’m grateful for a knight of the realm. It’s called “ser”-traline. I’m on it – antidepressants first time in my 30-year career to keep me going. I shouldn’t have to.

“I had emails from a parent saying ‘we know the school is closed. But we understand why. We know you’re losing great staff through no fault of your own because you don’t have the resources. We recognise that you spend more time with our children than your own and we want to let you know it does not go unappreciated.’

“That keeps me going but I don’t know for how much longer.”

‘We cannot meet needs’

Mark Mackley, St Matthew’s CE Primary Academy, Lancashire

“We’re a two-form entry nursery to year six – 450 Children – 17 EHCPs, two in the pipeline. 

“We have a lack of services, lack of access to them. We’ve ended up as a school having to resort to suspensions and permanent exclusions for SEND children because we just cannot meet their needs. 

“I’ve had a parent actually begging me to permanently exclude that child so they can get the services that they need.

“That is a travesty. Like you, I weep over every suspension and every permanent exclusion. SEND funding is an absolute mess. It’s got to be sorted.”

‘Three rounds of adverts – nobody wants the job’

George Samios, Twerton Infant School, Bath

“With a shortage of spaces in special schools, the number of children with significant additional needs in mainstream schools continues to rise.

“In my school, we have 16 children with an education and health care plan – almost one in 10 children have significant needs.

“Without a team of over 20 teaching assistants, our teachers would simply not be able to teach the class that they have and the children would not make the progress they do.

“This year we broke new ground in three rounds of recruiting for a TA – advertising on the DfE teaching vacancies website, on Eteach, in local shops. We received a grand total of zero applications.

“Three rounds of adverts. Nobody wants to do the job. A big fat ‘no thank you very much’.

“Over the past few years we have seen excellent TAs Leave to work as managers in shops, as ward clerks, one even for a funeral director. All important jobs, but no longer within education.

“The one common factor is they are now earning more than they did as a teaching assistant. And in one case, over twice as much.

“This is serious. The future of our schools depends on this. Unless things change, TAs will continue to leave and without them everything becomes harder.

“The impact of one child’s needs not being met in a class can adversely affect the rest of the class and put at risk the right that children have to be safe, to feel safe and to learn in an orderly and a safe environment.”

‘Families have been pushed out’

Jo Riley, Randal Cremer Primary School, Hackney

“A little over a week a go I stood in a packed hall – full of parents and staff – as the local council explained their proposal to close my school from July 2024.

“The school has been in the community for 150 years. The anger, anxiety and overwhelming sadness in the room was palpable as the council explained the factors that had impacted mine and so many schools locally and across London with the falling rolls.

“What the explanations didn’t do was tell the story behind the falling roll. They said Brexit – which was a Romanian family of seven children that returned to Romania because they no longer felt wanted or needed in London.

“Housing policy: the lack of council and social housing, forcing many of my families further and further out of London. Our beautiful 31 Afghani refugee children who had been dispersed across the UK as there was no housing for them locally.

“A cruel benefit cap system where [people claiming] universal credit are not allowed to have certain rents. In Hackney, the average rent is £2,000 a month and that’s for a one or two bedroom flat.

“I’ve got families that have lived in temporary accommodation for 6 years and have been told it will be 13 years before they are rehoused. The opening of a local free school five minutes from mine.

“Some of the most marginalised families in the borough are feeling once again pushed out and unwanted and unheard.”

‘It breaks my heart to reject children’

Adrienne Wright, Hatton Special School, Essex

“It breaks my heart every time I have to reject a child that needs a place in my school because I know the impact that will have on that child, their family and my colleagues in mainstream schools. 

“Mainstream colleagues look to special schools and say can you help us? I wish I could. I would love to share my staff and expertise with you to try and help alleviate those issues, but I can’t.

“As a special school I have 191 pupils, I employ 155 staff, and we are struggling. My budget is coming in, my staffing just for headteacher, classroom teachers and learning support assistants – 80 per cent of my budget.

“That’s no admin, that’s no other senior staff, no caretaking, no bills, no energy, no resources, nothing. Special schools were cutting posts – family support to help those most vulnerable families, gone, therapies, gone.

“We can’t recruit and retain learning support assistants (LSAs). I need 100 LSAs to staff my school. At points, this term I’ve had almost 50 per cent agency, if I can get them.

“The additional costs of that, the instability for those most complex pupils, no external support. Numbers are falling, but the number of children with SEN is going up in our borough.

“This needs strategic thought, it needs long term planning and investment in our most vulnerable pupils because they deserve better.”