Breaking News English

Times are [hard / hardly] for schools in England because they have so little money to spend. They have to cut [front / back] on many things. There is austerity [in / on] the UK so the government has cut school [budget / budgets] . One head teacher at a school in London does not have enough money [to / for] pay for cleaners or canteen staff. This means she has to help to clean the toilets and [service / serve] students in the school cafeteria. Ms Siobhan Lowe is head of Tolworth Girls' School in south London. She [recent / recently] told reporters that she was [embarrassed / embarrass] because her school did not have enough money [to / for] support for her students. Ms Lowe said she has sold school land, cut subjects and [flamed / fired] her deputy-head teacher to keep her school open.

The south London school is [typically / typical] of many schools in the UK. Thousands of head teachers have to make difficult [decision / decisions] about how to [spend / spending] their school's money. More than 7,000 head teachers recently wrote to 3.5 million parents to explain [what / why] the schools have no money. Many parents have become [voluntary / volunteers] at schools to help the children. Some schools have [asked / request] parents to provide toilet paper and [another / other] basics for the school toilets and classrooms. One school only has enough money to give students one [blanket / sheet] of A4 paper a month. Head teachers want to [meat / meet] the UK's education secretary, but he refused to meet them. The UK's Department for Education said funding for education was a government [priority / correctly] .