Recently featured on BBC Look North:
As Headteacher of Spire Junior School, I will be running the Great North Run in order to raise funds to subsidise school visits for the children at my school. We have 70% of our children on free school meals and are situated in an area of high socio-economic deprivation. Due to funding cuts, and increases in costs we're finding it increasingly difficult to run the school without running into a deficit. Under the new funding formula we will lose £17,000 of our budget and by 2020 the forecast is a loss of £99,000. I've had to lose one teacher and one teaching assistant, my deputy is now needed to teach full time, and I'm teaching part time, to save money. Our staff do a fantastic job and go above and beyond for the children and families of this school. If I lost anymore staff then I feel the quality of education our children currently receive would suffer . I have therefore looked at how to cut costs and have had to make some difficult decisions, which has included cutting back subsidies for school visits. I'm trying to be proactive in plugging the funding gap with donations and sponsorship from completing the Great North Run. As we are not a charity this page has been set up as a crowdfunding opportunity. For more information about the school please visit our website www.spirejunior.co.uk We hope you're able to support the fantastic children and families at our school.
Your sincerely
Mr Dave Shaw
Headteacher