Teachers using own cash for classroom essentials, says NASUWT

Teachers are digging into their own pockets to provide basic classroom resources and essentials for their pupils, a survey has found.The results, which were released by the NASUWT teaching union as delegates gather for its annual conference in Belfast, came from responses from 4,386 teachers. Some 20 per cent of teachers said they buy lesson resources with their own money once a week, and 12 per cent said they did so more often.Stationery, arts and crafts materials and books were the most common purchases. One teacher said a deputy head once told them to buy £10 Nandos vouchers for each year group as a behaviour incentive.They said: "It was not to be reimbursed and something I was ’expected’ to do. I also bought a high-quality printer at £300 as the department was ’banned’ from printing to ’save costs’”.“The expectation is we purchase things ourselves as our job is a vocation. I'm fed up of hearing this over and over again. It's never enough and am ready to leave.” Asked why they had bought resources from their own money, 53 per cent of the teachers cited funding pressures on their school, while 30 per cent said the resources provided were out of date or unsuitable, and 28 per cent that their school had the money but chose to spend it on other things.