Donors

Roundwood Park Alumni Association would like to thank the following individuals/companies that have kindly donated to the Alumni Fund.

Since 2018, we have been unable to identify alumni donors from other donations received. Apologies for not showing your name on this page. All donors are individually thanked for their kind contributions.

A letter from the Head Teacher, Mr Alan Henshall

8 March 2019

Dear parents and carers

The quality of education within Hertfordshire has for many years been extremely high, with most schools judged to be either good, or indeed, outstanding. Families are attracted to live here and this has been reflected in the rise of house prices. There are many opportunities within Hertfordshire itself coupled with its proximity to London.

Headteachers have done a remarkable job responding to the annual real-term reduction in funding over the past 7 years. According to the “House of Commons Library”, education spending has dropped by over £7bn since 2011-2012. Other reports demonstrate that real-terms spending fell from £95.5 bn (2011-2012) to £87.7bn (2017- 2018).

Standards have continued to rise despite this. New qualifications and new syllabi have been successfully introduced. In order to ensure that children’s education does not suffer, educational professionals have put in so much effort to make things work well. Efficiencies have been made and hard decisions taken but now, after seven years, the system is at breaking point.

The root of the problem is that there have never been sufficient increases in funding to pay for the successive years of the teacher pay rise, National Insurance contributions and pensions costs. These weighty additions have had to be found within existing budgets and this has then led to reductions. Similar to the NHS, with increasing knowledge, changes and new specifications, teachers need to be constantly trained and up-skilled. The curriculum in many schools is being narrowed as minority subjects (particular the arts) are being cut. Whilst schools have invested in preventative care and strategies around both physical and mental health, these are costly and there is evidence that many schools are facing reductions in these very important areas in order to fund the more formal curriculum.

The scale of the problem is well documented and known. Education at the moment is not a priority for Government. It is a naive and short-term view, however, which will, by not putting in additional funding, affect this country for many years to come.

We ask our parents and the wider community to understand the situation we as Headteachers are having to deal with. Whilst we will always put children’s education first, we can no longer fund some of the activities, staffing, programmes or opportunities that many parents are used to seeing in our good schools. Please continue to support us, write to your MP and get the word out in the wider community.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely

Alan Henshall

Headteacher