Schools are in trouble. Not their performance, although the pressure put on teachers and children is beyond ridiculous, and the fact that we expect four-year olds to knuckle down and score points? Well, don’t get me started. The trouble I refer to here is of the more solid kind: buildings.

School buildings are falling apart – and the government doesn’t seem to care. And by care, I mean do anything. When the coalition came in to power back in 2010, one of the first thing Education Secretary, Michael Gove, did was scrap the Building for Schools programme, a programme that meant dilapidating school buildings would be re-built.

It was a programme that worked. In Dursley, Rednock School was completely revamped to the tune of £30 million, and it meant new classrooms, a refreshed place for pupils to learn.

But now that’s all gone. And as a former school governor, I have experienced the direct consequences. There is no money. None. Schools, successful schools rated Outstanding by Ofsted, are having to mend and make do.

Some are getting help. Winterbourne International Academy has just begun construction of a new site, receiving £19.3million in funding. But this is an exception. In a survey of the 261 schools in the coalition’s priority build programme, of the 158 that replied, only 19 had start dates - and none of the privately financed projects who responded said they had funding secured. In fact, 66 schools said they had heard nothing on their rebuilds.

When I was a governor, our school was rated Outstanding by Ofsted, and yet classes are taught from ageing prefabs, and windows leak. And what worries me about this, the worst thing about this situation, is the message it sends to kids - that even if you do your very best, you won’t get rewarded, that you won’t get a decent environment in which to learn. Because, too all intents and purposes, that’s what the Government is saying. To our children.

Some may quote difficult economic circumstances to explain the lack of school funding, yet consider this: over the next decade, the Ministry of Defence could be spending £160 billion on new weapons’ systems. That’s no way to spend money. It’s not a future.

A future is our children - and their education. Stop that and everything breaks – but this time, it won’t be just leaky windows.

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