Section:GDN 1N PaGe:11 Edition Date:190829 Edition:01 Zone: Sent at 28/8/2019 19:30 cYanmaGentaYellowb
Thursday 29 Aug ust 2019 The Guardian •
National^11
Extra £3.5bn for schools is too
little too late, say school leaders
Sally Weale
Education correspondentControversial government plans prom-
ising increased funding for education,
more free schools and a crackdown
on pupil behaviour have been greeted
with a mixture of scepticism and out-
rage by those working in the sector.
The measures, revealed in a con-
fi dential briefi ng document seen by
the Guardian, received a lukewarm
response from school leaders, who
said that while any additional funding
was welcome, the £3.5bn on off er was
nowhere near enough to repair dam-
age caused by years of sustained cuts.
There was also widespread alarm
about government proposals for a
package of disciplinary measures,
including a renewed emphasis on
exclusions and support for the use of
“reasonable force” to improve behav-
iour in schools.
On funding, Jules White , a head-
teacher who has played a key role in the
Worth Less? campaign for more money
for schools, warned the government tocome clean: “Heads will not be hood-
winked by a large-sounding number
that in fact merely covers rising costs in
areas such as employer pensions and
higher pupil numbers.
“We are not mugs and will only be
infl uenced by what is right for schools
and families rather than any short-
term political motives.” He said special
education needs (SEN) alone would
require a multibillion commitment to
put right the wrongs of the past.
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general
secretary of the National Education
Union , said the promised money fell
far short of the additional £12.6bn
schools and colleges need by 2022 -
23 in order to address the funding
crisis. “Obviously any extra money
for schools will be welcome because
schools are desperate for funding. The
problem is this just isn’t enough.”
A Guardian call-out to readers
working in education attracted a
similar response. “Being in educa-
tion for as long as I have has taught
me to be pretty sceptical about
these announcements about extra
money,” said one chair of trusteesfor a multi-academy trust in the east
of England. “By the time it’s passed
through various fi lters and arrives at
our door, it looks considerably diff er-
ent to what you were expecting from
the original announcement.”
The educational psychologist Dr
Dan O’Hare spoke for many when he
expressed concerns about the govern-
ment’s tough new line on behaviour.
“Behaviour for children and young
people is a form of communication.
Children have a reason for demonstrat-
ing the behaviours they do. We should
be trying to fi nd out the reasons rather
than just disciplining them.”
Others responded with outrage tothe apparent green light for exclusions.
A writer working in a men’s prison
warned: “As someone who has worked
in prison for almost nine years, a
common history shared by a lot of
men is exclusion from mainstream
education. ”
Another area of concern was the
potential impact of the government’s
plans on teaching assistants (TAs),
after the leaked document revealed
that the Treasury and No 10 believe
there are too many and they are not
eff ectively deployed.
Rob Webster, an associate profes-
sor at the UCL Institute of Education ,
who has done extensive research on
the role of TAs, warned: “Cutting the
number creates much bigger problems
not very far down the line.
“TAs are like the mortar in the brick-
work. They are what is holding the
school together .”
Donna Spicer, a TA for 18 years,
said that – like elsewhere in England –
budget cuts had resulted in numerous
TA roles being axed in schools across
the borough of Greenwich in south-
east London, where she works.
A single secondary school in her
borough has lost 19 support staff. “It
has a massive impact. Pupils who need
one-to-one support are left behind and
it’s the teachers who then struggle – it’s
particularly diffi cult for newly quali-
fi ed teachers .”Additional reporting Naomi LarssonLeaps and bounds SpaceX’s Starhopper completed a practice fl ight at the US rocket fi rm’s
spaceport and test site at Boca Chica Beach, Texas, yesterday. It rose 150 metres into the air,
shifted sideways and landed on a test pad, its second hop after an 18-metre jump last month.
The tests are part of eff orts to develop a new engine that will burn liquid methane and
potentially power Elon Musk’s SpaceX Starship and Superheavy rockets. “One day Starship
will land on the rusty sands of Mars,” the entrepreneur and PayPal co-founder said.PHOTOGRAPH:
MIGUEL ROBERTS/APFor mer p ol ice
spy who had
sexual relations
with activists
investigated
Rob Evans
A former undercover police offi cer who
infi ltrated environmental groups for
seven years is under investigation for
deceiving women into sexual relation-
ships and allegedly leaking secrets.
Mark Kennedy, whose covert
deployment was exposed principally
by one of the women he had deceived,
is being investigated as to whether he
conducted “inappropriate sexual rela-
tionships” and whether he broke the
1989 Offi cial Secrets Act.
Police chiefs say undercover offi c-
ers were not allowed to form sexual
relationships with the campaigners
they were deployed to spy on, though
they have displayed a more ambiva-
lent stance in the past and argued that
such relationships could be permitted.
Kennedy adopted a fake identity
and pretended to be an environmen-
talist and leftwing activist in a series
of groups such as Climate Camp.
While deployed, he formed intimate
relationships with women without
telling them that he was a police spy.
The longest lasted six years.
Police say Kennedy deceived four
environmental activists into form-
ing “abusive and manipulative”
long-term relationships. The Metro-
politan police subsequently paid them
compensation.
Police have also admitted that
Kennedy’s managers knew he was
deceiving one of the activists, Kate
Wilson , into a long-term sexual rela-
tionship and allowed it to continue.
Kennedy was one of about 140
undercover police offi cers in two cov-
ert units who spied on more than 1,
political groups in long -term deploy-
ments, usually lasting about fi ve years,
since 1968. After he was unmasked in
2010 , he hired the celebrity publicist
Max Cliff ord to sell his story to the
media and arrange a series of inter-
views with journalists. He had by then
left the Met.
Operation Montrose, the investiga-
tion into Kennedy, started in January
2015 at the request of Scotland Yard.
Investigators have interviewed an
unidentifi ed individual under caution
and six others as witnesses. The inves-
tigation is led by the National Police
Chiefs’ Council , and conducted by
Metropolitan police offi cers, as part
of a wider internal inquiry into Ken-
nedy’s former unit.
▲ Mark Kennedy used a fake identity
and had several sexual relationships
‘Obviously schools
will welcome extra
money. The problem
is this isn’t enough’Mary Bousted
Union leaderRELEASED BY "What's News" vk.com/wsnws TELEGRAM: t.me/whatsnws