Vale View primary in Reddish, Stockport, is believed to be one of at least 25 schools in England to take the drastic measure of shortening the school week in order to cut costs. “Running a school in Stockport costs exactly the same in terms of teachers’ salaries and the cost of providing a good curriculum, and yet a comparable Manchester school half a mile away would receive £350,000 more per year in basic funding,” Hannah added. They need proper funding | Holly Rigby Read moreShe insisted the change was definitely happening “unless there was a significant change in funding”. Andrew Gwynne, the local Labour MP, urged the government to increase school funding: “My message to ministers is clear: don’t hide behind false statistics suggesting you are protecting school budgets. “We have protected the core schools budget overall in real terms since 2010, and put an additional £1.3bn into core schools funding across 2018-19 and 2019-20, over and above plans set out at the last spending review.”

Source: The Guardian February 28, 2019 07:01 UTC