Staff and parents marching to save jobs at Forest Hill School in Lewisham, south London, 22.4.17, photo by Martin Powell-Davies

Staff and parents marching to save jobs at Forest Hill School in Lewisham, south London, 22.4.17, photo by Martin Powell-Davies   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

200 staff and parents marched through the streets of Catford in support of Forest Hill School, Lewisham, south London on 22 April. Forest Hill School has a £1.3 million deficit and is facing significant cuts, including potentially 15 teacher redundancies on top of support staff who have already gone. National Union of Teachers (NUT) members have taken strike action when one picket line banner read: it’s “not our deficit’.

At NUT conference on 15 April delegates from Lewisham, south London, moved a motion which identified areas where there can be action against funding cuts. Like at Forest Hill, around half a dozen different London boroughs have seen action, but this needs to be coordinated. As Socialist Party member James Kerr said: “We need a strategy that can win on cuts.”