John Hayes is executive head at Gospel Oak and Netley

HEADTEACHERS are facing sleepless nights over rising energy bills that threaten to eat into already tight school budgets and could lead to cuts.

Schools in Camden face projected increases of around 150 per cent for gas bills and 80 per cent for electricity from October. Like businesses, schools have no cap on their energy costs.

John Hayes, executive headteacher of Gospel Oak and Netley primary schools, said: “We’re worried that we are going to get totally clobbered by loads of costs because of these rises, inflation as well as energy bills and at this stage it’s so completely unthinkably awful that it begins to become a joke.

“I’m having sleepless nights over how to balance the books. Every year for the last 10 years it has become more and more difficult to do this job.”

The blow has been softened so far for schools as Camden Council “hedged” the electricity and gas markets and bought in bulk. Although they risked paying over market rate, the soaring prices of energy meant that the gamble has paid off and they have paid less than others elsewhere.

Town Hall officials have done the same again, but the “mid-term” estimates from next month still sees tens of thousands of pounds extra on annual school costs.

Some schools have already installed solar panels, including Hampstead School and Acland Burghley.
Schools are not usually allowed to go into deficit, but local authorities can approve it in extraordinary circumstances.

In the face of falling pupil numbers in recent years, schools in Camden have already made redundancies and introduced other cost cutting measures.

Helen Connor, head of Rhyl Community Primary in Kentish Town, said that with two Victorian school buildings to try and keep warm this winter she was extremely concerned.

She said: “We have a building which is hard to heat so our costs are naturally higher than others. We are looking at what is possible to make savings, but we made staffing cuts sadly when the schools merged, and it is just not possible to make further staffing cuts.”

Gary Moore at Regent High School

The picture is similar in secondaries. While buildings are relatively new at Regent High school in Somers Town, its headteacher is still worried.

Gary Moore said: “I can’t just go around switching off lights, and I’m not a factory where I can put my prices up and increase production.

“The reality is that there will be significant increases in our energy costs and those bills will need to be paid. I’m not going to be taken to a small claims court by an energy company.

“There will be difficult decisions. We still have Covid with us, I have staff off with it this week, so we will need the windows open when it comes to winter, but I might be advised to turn the heating off.

“We will look at where we could make savings, and after that it might be faculty resources, and after that as a very last resort we would have to look at redundancies. But that is a worse case scenario.”

Headteacher at Haverstock James Hadley said: “We are concerned that continued increased costs without additional funding will lead to a reduction in the resources available for our students.”

Gerald Clark, head of Camden’s National Education Union branch said: “The only way schools can really cut costs is by making redundancies, which clearly has a massive impact on the education of children who have already been through a lot with Covid.

“I can see redundancies happening this year – both of teachers and support staff. Ultimately, you need to have one teacher in front of a class teaching children, but when you lose support staff it’s massive for children with SEN, which we are seeing an increase of.”

Camden’s education chief Marcus Boyland said: “It’s something we are keeping an eye on all the time. Because of the Camden heating pool, and the decisions taken to bulk buy, mean that we think schools will be okay compared to others.”