Parents to ‘keep up pressure’ over education cuts with park protests

Worried: parents and children show their support for banner protest. Photograph: Max Eckersley

Campaigners fighting government plans to cut education funding are to stage a mass rally in parks across Hackney this Friday.

The local branch of parent-led group Fair Funding for All Schools (FFfAS) will make its voice heard all over the borough as children, politicians and teachers join them to demand Whitehall scraps proposals to change the national funding formula.

The formula is used to work out how money from the dedicated schools grant is divvied up among local authorities, and those in the capital are set to lose out.

According to FFfAS, the changes will see £26 million worth of funding pulled from Hackney’s education budget by 2019, amounting to £914 per pupil.

Friday’s ‘School Assembly’ movement will see children from more than 25 primary and secondary schools lead protests with hand-made placards, painted faces, printed T-shirts and balloons.

Events are set to kick off at 4pm in seven parks, including London Fields, Clissold Park, Well Street Common and Daubeney Fields.

Local MP Meg Hillier will speak at Well Street Common, while Mayor of Hackney Philip Glanville is due to address crowds at Daubeney Fields.

The demonstrations are part of a national day of action, with similar events taking place all over the UK.

FFfAS co-founder Jo Yurky said: “As a result of brilliant campaigning by parents across the country, all political parties now accept the need for more school funding. We’ve seen major concessions in their manifestos but, sadly, not all of them go far enough.

“At the very least, we need pupil funding to be protected in real terms over the next five years. Anything that falls short of that is unacceptable. So parents will be using events like Friday’s to keep the pressure up and make our voices heard.”

FFfAS has also organised an education debate between parliamentary hopefuls from the main parties who are standing in Hackney North and Stoke Newington. It takes place at 7pm tomorrow evening at the Old Church in Stoke Newington.

Last week, campaigners pinned banners to playground fences across the borough warning parents of the threat to funding.

For more information on the FFfAS’s activities, please visit the website here