{"id":1085694,"date":"2026-07-13T02:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1085694\/"},"modified":"2026-07-13T02:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-13T02:36:15","slug":"pupils-will-lose-out-without-more-school-funds-warns-retiring-head","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1085694\/","title":{"rendered":"Pupils will lose out without more school funds, warns retiring head"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Hayes at Gospel Oak Primary School<\/strong><\/p>\n

A HEADTEACHER retiring after 12 years at a Camden primary school has warned that schools are being forced to do \u201cmore with less\u201d saying a lack of funding and rising costs are preventing teachers from giving children the education they deserve.<\/p>\n

After 38 years working in education, John Hayes, headteacher at Gospel Oak Primary school will work his final day in two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will of course miss the kids, seeing them everyday,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd my staff. Gospel Oak is special because everyone goes above and beyond for the kids. Everyone puts up with all sorts, and that\u2019s because this is a solid group of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

But looking back on his time leading the Mansfield Road School, Mr Hayes said reform was needed across the education sector.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cYou need people who totally get it. Advisers in government that have actually done it. \u201cI\u2019ve spoken to heads that have been told not to speak out, and the only way we can affect change is by making a fuss about it. I\u2019m angry because these kids only get one go at this and then we get judged if we don\u2019t do it right. It goes way beyond teaching kids to read, write and add up. Schools are factories of social cohesion \u2013 and it\u2019s a vocation for people that work in schools.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, Mr Hayes stood as the Labour candidate for Hitchin and Harpenden but was unsuccessful.\u00a0 Nearly a decade later, he said he feels disappointed by the Labour government, but remains hopeful the party will adopt a better message.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen Starmer came in with his 10 pledges, I voted for him,\u201d\u2008he said. \u201cAnd then he systematically dismantled all of those. There is plenty that we have achieved in the last two years that the vast majority of people are unaware of. \u201cBut that is the problem with Labour \u2013 its communication strategy is dreadful. I\u2019m hopeful things will start to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The New Journal has previously reported on support staff at other schools across the borough taking strike action over pay, arguing their wages do not reflect the dramatic changes to their day to day roles. But some schools, including Gospel Oak, increased the pay of support staff more than a decade ago.<\/p>\n

Mr Hayes said: \u201cThe people who are the lowest paid in school are often asked to do the most difficult jobs. So with leeway in the budget, there were ways to pay them more and we did, but the problem is we haven\u2019t got the money any more.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sixteen schools in Camden are now operating with budget deficits due to a combination of rising costs and increasing numbers of children with highly complex needs. Falling rolls have also created gaps due to the per-pupil funding system.<\/p>\n

Mr Hayes said: \u201cIn many respects we are in a better place, our teachers have never been better trained or informed. The way we can analyse data about children and communicate, should all be leading to astonishingly high standards.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what is preventing us is that we don\u2019t have the resources. The direction this is going \u2013 the messages that will come out of central and local government \u2013 will be do it cheaper, do more with less. Given that 85 per cent of the budget is on staff, the only place you make savings is having fewer of them or paying them less.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Hayes said he would still do consultancy work at Gospel Oak and at Netley Primary School in Regent\u2019s Park. And retirement will also see him continue to campaign for a mass reform of Ofsted, along with longer dog walks and more time with his wife and grandchild. The Department for Education said they were making significant investment in the core schools budget in the financial year of 2026-2027.<\/p>\n

They added: \u201cThis includes funding for SEND reform and the additional \u00a31.8bn ann\u00adounced to support schools with staff pay awards. This means that the core schools budget will total \u00a367.6bn, compared to \u00a365.3bn in 2025-26.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"John Hayes at Gospel Oak Primary School A HEADTEACHER retiring after 12 years at a Camden primary school…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1085695,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[7757],"tags":[748,108626,2266,393,296862,4884,257,18394,16,15],"class_list":["post-1085694","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-london","tag-britain","tag-caitlin-maskell","tag-education","tag-england","tag-gospel-oak","tag-great-britain","tag-london","tag-the-camden-new-journal","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116910344598758829","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085694","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1085694"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1085694\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1085695"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1085694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1085694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1085694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}