Today (Tues 29 Nov), at a parliamentary briefing event organised by school leaders’ union NAHT, MPs will be hearing from school leaders from the Greater London region about the challenges their schools currently face, including issues of pay, funding, recruitment and retention, falling rolls, and SEND.

Paul Whiteman, NAHT general secretary, said: “Schools are currently facing a myriad of pressures, and London is no exception. Inflationary pressures are still predicted to rise, with support for energy bills only guaranteed until April. The demand for support for special educational needs is huge and current levels of funding are insufficient. Teachers and school leaders have experienced a decade of pay erosion, contributing to a recruitment and retention crisis. The government needs to listen to school leaders’ experiences and concerns. We thank those MPs who have attended our briefing event and urge them to use this information to push for change.”

MPs attending the event (including Labour, Lib Dem and Conservative) will be briefed on how the cost of living crisis, the economic impacts of Brexit and acute recruitment and retention challenges mean that it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain the high levels of outcomes in London schools.  

Dave Woods, head teacher of a primary school in London, regional secretary and national executive member of NAHT Greater London Region, said: “None of my existing middle leaders have any desire for headship citing long hours, punitive inspections, high-stakes accountability and decreasing pay differentials with teachers.

“This past summer was the first time I had teachers leave and cite their number one reason as the unaffordability of living in London. Only approximately 10-15% of my teachers live in the borough where my school is located due to issues with availability and affordability of housing. This means long commutes to and from work after already long, hard days at work.

“As a mainstream school with a specialist SEND provision, we are struggling to recruit SEND staff to support our pupils due to low-pay, no support available from speech and language, occupational therapy, educational psychology and also increased pay rates by supermarkets and other employers with more flexible hours.”