Head tells Prime Minister of impact of fare freezes

A HEADTEACHER spoke of the positive impacts of free childcare and rail fare freezes at a meeting with the Prime Minister on Monday.

Sir Keir Starmer met with community representatives and local MPs, including MP for Central Reading Matt Rodda, to discuss the cost of living concerns at Emmer Green Community Centre.

Laura Matthews, headteacher at Highdown School in Emmer Green, was invited to the meeting, where she spoke about the impact on schools and family households of the rising costs of energy, food and essential resources.

She also shared with him the benefits of universal free childcare, which she said had eased the impact of the “motherhood penalty” on the profession.

Ms Matthews said: “The rail fare freeze is really positive, particularly because teacher pay is worked out on the national pay scale so everyone gets paid the same, but there is an inner-London weighting and an outer-London weighting.

“In Reading, you’re paid the same as teachers in Burnley, where I’m from, and the cost of living is very different in these areas. So, for Reading, the rail fare freeze was really significant because if you live in Reading you don’t get paid the higher weighting.

“The childcare is really positive as well. We know that we lose more teachers to the motherhood penalty than we do to retirement.

“Providing free childcare universally will make a massive difference to women in the profession.” Ms Matthews said she didn’t get the chance to talk about access to free school meals but added administrative challenges represent a barrier for some families trying to access the scheme.

At the meeting, Sir Keir told of the Government’s rail ticket sale, offering discounted journeys across Britain.

The offer was active as of Tuesday and includes four million tickets discounted by more than 50 per cent for travel between January 13 and March 25.