BROMLEY: Cash-strapped St Mark's School in pencil appeal

2:30pm Tuesday 9th March 2010

By Robert Fisk

A CASH-STRAPPED school which cannot afford to buy pencils for its pupils expects things to get worse before they get better.

St Mark’s Primary School had to appeal to parents to buy stationery and other items after finding it has less than £20 in its ‘consumables’ budget to last until April.

It has not been able to afford to buy any calculators and textbooks this academic year and the school in Aylesbury Road, Bromley, relies on supermarket vouchers to fund its PE curriculum.

Headteacher Kate Owbridge says she fears this financial hardship will increase as the government makes cuts to budgets.

She said: “Our funding like most schools in the borough and country is getting tighter and tighter.

“Bromley is a ‘floor authority’ so we get hardly any grant from the government.

“One bum on a seat in my school is worth half as much as in Tower Hamlets but we are expected to provide the same quality of service.”

Mrs Owbridge added: “They are in a difficult position but somebody somewhere has to give something otherwise it is going to get worse and worse.

“Us heads are forever lobbying Bromley and we never know how much Bromley lobby the government to give them extra money.

“It’s the challenge of keeping the standards where we have got them while having no budget.”

Talking about the appeal, she said: “All the teachers did a wish list and we weren’t expecting as much as we got.

“A lot of things were brand new and some of it is secondhand and really useable.

“[The PTA used to fundraise for] the extras like a new cooker for food technology whereas now we have to ask them to contribute to our building costs.

“We are lucky we have got parents like this, in other schools I have worked in we have not got this support.

“We are really lucky that we have got parents who are interested in their children.”

Portfolio holder for children and young people Councillor Ernest Noad said: “Bromley is a high performing authority with a large number of outstanding schools.

“We have lobbied central government for years about the difficulties we face in ensuring sufficient funding to meet the needs of our primary and secondary schools.

“As a so-called ‘floor’ authority in terms of grant funding, Bromley has only been able to access a fraction of the spending announcements made by the government.”

A Department for Children, Schools and Families spokesman said: “We want all children to have an equal chance to succeed.

“Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are more likely to need extra support from their school to make that a reality.

“It is also right to give more to high cost areas where it costs schools more to recruit and retain high quality staff."