School cuts: Penarth parents' funding call over early finish fears

Parents want urgent action by politicians to stop schools from potentially having to close early on Fridays due to a lack of funding.

Schools in Penarth have written to parents warning a £1m funding shortfall could force them to take the step.

A school leaders' group said "systemic" lack of funding meant head teachers had to resort to such "radical ways" to plug funding gaps.

The Welsh Government said school funding was councils' responsibility.

But Vale of Glamorgan Council said it gets £600 less per pupil than the average in Wales from ministers and spends about £4m more on schools than the Welsh Government says it should be to keep them running.

The letter to parents warned children's education was being "compromised by the Welsh Government's failure to fund schools properly".

A group of parents from Sully Primary in Vale of Glamorgan has written to politicians including First Minister Mark Drakeford, Cardiff South and Penarth AM Vaughan Gething and Vale of Glamorgan MP and Welsh Secretary Alun Cairns.

They said: "Schools across Penarth, including ours, are now being forced to consider closing on a Friday afternoon to create a sustainable staffing model.

"Parents are deeply worried about the prospect of their children losing hours of learning time each week and about how they would manage the additional childcare they would need if this happens.

"How can it be acceptable in this day and age that schools can't afford to stay open for the whole week?"

Schools say they would use the pupil-free time to let teachers do planning and preparation (PPA), rather than spread it across the week, when they have to cover each teacher's class by paying an additional member of staff or supply teacher.

Teachers have PPA time built into their working hours.

Sali Button, whose child attends Albert Primary School in Penarth, started a petition on Tuesday calling on the Welsh Government to "end the school funding crisis across Wales", which now has almost 1,500 signatures.

She said: "I know a lot of parents that are really concerned. I want the government to fund the schools fairly. There is a problem with the way that different schools across different authorities are all funded differently.

"I would not be directly affected by a Friday afternoon school closure, but I would be worried that my child wasn't receiving the education he should have."

Meanwhile, Neyland Primary in Pembrokeshire has joined a number in the Milford Haven cluster which will close at lunchtime on Fridays from September.

It insisted it had nothing to do with saving money, but allowed them time to train teachers ahead of a new curriculum starting in 2022.

But Tim Pratt, director of Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL) Cymru, said most heads were "desperate".

"It's rare to find a head teacher who says, 'I'm all right, this year'. I know school leaders who are not sleeping at night because they are not getting enough money [for their school]."

He said a survey of ASCL members across Wales found 75% of secondary schools were in deficit and some GCSE classes had up to 40 pupils whereas "you wouldn't have dreamed of " more than 30 pupils 10 years ago.

Conservative Mr Cairns has written to the area's Labour AM, Jane Hutt, asking her to "put party politics aside" and lobby the first minister for fairer education funding in the area.

He said the council got one of the lowest shares of education funding in Wales from ministers in Cardiff this year because the assessment was based on old data.

But the Welsh Government said more than 80% of that data, such as pupil numbers, is updated annually and that the Vale spends the least per pupil in the whole of Wales.

It said it proposed updating the 1991 census element of the funding formula for local government, but that had not been pursued by councils.