By John Connell

Published at 11:45, Wednesday, 09 January 2013

THE shadow secretary of state for education is due to visit two Carlisle schools tomorrow.

Funding changes: Stephen Twigg will meet headteachers at Newtown Community Primary School and Petteril Bank School

Stephen Twigg will be at Newtown Community Primary School and Petteril Bank School to speak to the headteachers about funding cuts.

Mr Twigg was invited by Lee Sherriff, the prospective Labour parliamentary candidate for Carlisle.

Ms Lee and Joe Hendry will be meeting him to discuss the changes to the National Funding Formula under which these will be the two schools in Carlisle that lose the most money.

He will meet head Fiona Manuel, head teacher of Newtown followed by Jose Hodgkins, headteacher of Petterill Bank

Ms Lee said: “It’s so the two head teachers can voice their concerns [about the funding cuts] and have a look around the schools.”

Ms Lee said that under the plans Newtown would see its budget cut by between 15.9 and 11.2 per cent (between £73,839 and £52,023), while Peterill Bank would see cuts of between 11.4 and 7.5 per cent (£56,817 and £37,066).

Stewart Young, leader of the Labour Group, is hoping to join Mr Twigg during the Petteril Bank leg of his visit in the afternoon.

The national funding formula will be introduced in the next spending review period. According to the Department for Education, this is to “ensure that schools in similar circumstances and with similar intakes receive similar levels of funding.”

But Ms Lee said that both schools were in “quite deprived wards”.

Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk