Essex school cannot afford textbooks due to cost of living crisis

A head teacher said his school could no longer afford new text books after its gas bill went up by more than £100,000.

Vic Goddard, the head of a trust made up of four schools in Harlow, Essex, said he was struggling to sleep because of the "frightening" situation.

"I came into this job to make a difference, but how can I do that when we have no resources?" he said.

The government said it was increasing budgets for schools and recommending energy deals.

Mr Goddard, the chief executive officer of Passmores Cooperative Learning Community, said the trust would not be able to subsidise school trips in the future and had stopped providing pupils with laptops.

"If a teacher comes to me and says we need new text books, I will have to say no because we can't afford it," he said.

Schools' rising energy bills are not covered by the price cap that applies to households.

The trust is facing an increase in gas bills of £122,000 and is due to receive an electricity bill shortly, which Mr Goddard expects to be £200,000 higher than normal.

Pay for most teachers in England is also rising by 5% this year which has to be paid for by schools out of existing budgets.

It means the trust has got a deficit of around £500,000 before the extra electricity costs.

"Every child is going to get less. This is the worst time I have known in education. There is nothing left to cut. Any staff that leave will not be replaced because we can't afford it," said Mr Goddard.

"We are spending every penny of our reserves just to carry on, not to improve or innovate.

"If the new prime minister has written a list of priorities and children are not right at the top then something is definitely wrong."

A Department for Education spokeswoman said the government was increasing core funding by £4bn this year and helping schools "get the best value for money from their resources" by recommending deals to manage energy costs.

"We are aware of the inflationary pressures facing schools and know that rising costs will impact schools differently," she added.

Prime Minister Liz Truss will unveil plans to deal with rising energy costs later.

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