Teacher strikes: ‘London’s schools are sinking and we can no longer afford to keep children safe’

I’ve been a headteacher for 20 years and, for the first time in my career, I’ve reached the point where I’m prepared to go on strike. I do not say these words lightly, but it’s got to the stage in which hope, possibility, joy, and opportunity are being wiped out of education, and schools like mine are getting to the point where we can no longer afford to keep children safe.

Let me try to paint a picture for you. I became headteacher of Plumcroft Community Primary School in Greenwich in 2010 and, while the money has never been plentiful in education, at least back then we had sufficient funding to deliver our curriculum and enhance it with things like visits from musicians, residential school trips, and health and wellbeing projects, like using activity trackers to help tackle childhood obesity. Plumcroft used to be at the cutting edge of those things; we can’t afford to do them now because the numbers simply do not work.