Leafleting in your community

Take the campaign to your community.

By leafleting, you’ll be having meaningful conversations and sharing important information with people who might not know about school cuts, inviting them to join our movement for school funding.

Remember — all actions are important and valuable. Find the community that’s right for you to approach, and the ways of communicating that you feel most comfortable with. Do you prefer to send messages online? Or maybe you prefer conversations with friends and family over conversations with strangers? Each conversation you have with someone about the campaign can lead to change.

1. Order your leaflets and posters

Order your leaflets and posters

2. Choose your date, time and location

Think about where and when your community gathers, or where there is a lot of foot traffic. Could it be:

The school gate in the morning or at pick up time?
A volunteer or recreational group, like a food bank, arts centre or sports club?
A faith centre, like your local church, mosque or temple?
On your own street or neighbourhood?

3. Rally your team

Collecting signatures is always more fun when you go out as a team.

You only need two or three people to have a great time out, but the more the merrier – and the more signatures you’ll collect. Get the word out to your networks using local parent groups or listservs, social media or even just by Whatsapping friends.

Once you’ve planned your event and invited your network, you’ll need to follow-up to ensure people attend. Effective follow-ups are all about personal contact. Don’t be afraid to send a quick text or give someone a call.

4. Bring your leaflets and get your signature sheets ready

We’ll have these included in your leaflet and posters packs – but print as many signature sheets as you think you’ll need. Each side of a signature sheet should have enough room for 14 signatures – so you might need to print a few!

Print your signature sheets

[Shared] [School Cuts] Petition sheets.pdf

5. On the day

Each conversation you have is an opportunity to bring someone into the movement, and a chance to empower others with critical information about school funding. Every person you speak to and every relationship you build is important.

Be sure to take a photo!

The posters and leaflets lend themselves to a great photo opportunity for your school and this campaign. Bring along those who might be new to the campaign: parents, teachers, school staff and pupils to snap a photo while you are campaigning.

What to say

Share why school funding is so important to you, how bad you’ve seen school cuts get in recent years, and what you expect from your MP and Chancellor Rachel Reeves. We’ve shared a template here that you’re welcome to adapt:

Hi there! Do you have a moment?

I just wanted to tell you about the Government's new school cuts.

These cuts amount to £700 million, and will affect 76% of primary schools and 94% of secondary schools.

That means even less money to address existing problems:

- Crumbling buildings

- Insufficient support for children with SEND

- Cuts to arts, music and sports

- Not enough teachers or resources for each classroom.

(If you are collecting signatures for your open letter)

We want as many MPs as possible to reach out to Chancellor Rachel Reeves and tell her to reverse the new cuts.

We know that school cuts won’t be solved overnight. It might take years.

But we need to know that this Government is committed to restoring school funding.

Would you consider signing on to the open letter to your MP?

Answering questions

Who runs the Stop School Cuts campaign?

The campaign to Stop School Cuts is run by the National Education Union, the largest education union in Europe. We’re supported by Association of School and College Leaders, National Association of Head Teachers, National Governance Association and ParentKind.

Why are there new cuts?

They announced a proposed pay increase last year for teachers, but are now refusing to fund it.

This has created a £700 million for school budgets, and 76% of primary schools and 94% of secondary schools are forced to make cuts this year.

How successful has this campaign been? How do I know this will work?

We know that when we come together as local communities all across the country, we can make a difference.

From 2016 to 2019, the Stop School Cuts campaign won a series of concessions from successive Prime Ministers, winning money for children with special educational needs, for maintained nurseries and mainstream schools.

In total, we won over £20bn for school budgets.

What do I need to do?

If you are collecting signatures for your open letter

You can sign this open letter, aimed at the MPs for our town. We’re asking them to push back against the Chancellor’s decision. The more of us that sign it, the more they’ll understand that this is a defining issue for their constituents, and they’ll agree to push back.

If you are not collecting signatures for your open letter

You can go to schoolcuts.org.uk. There, you can send a letter to your MP asking them to push back against the Chancellor’s decision.

You can also check the numbers of your school and community there.

6. Debrief

After you’ve finished leafleting, it’s always a good idea to touch base with your leafleting team to debrief how it went. For example:

Can someone share a particularly positive experience?
What good conversations did the leafleting prompt?
Were there any surprising reactions from people?
If someone leafleted for the first time, how did they find it?

Stay in touch

Suggest staying in touch or even planning another action together with your team. At this point you might even want to create a Whatsapp group so you can coordinate more easily.

7. Send your petition sheets and upload your photos

Where you send your signature sheets:

Don’t forget to take a photo of the signature sheets(s) and email them to campaigns@schoolcuts.org.uk.

By sending in the forms to our campaign HQ, we can add them to our supporter list, and you’ll also be helping us grow the number of campaign supporters willing to take action on funding cuts in your area.

Where to send your photos:

➡️ On social media. Tag us with:

Facebook: @schoolcutsuk
Twitter: @schoolcuts
BlueSky: @schoolcuts.bsky.social
Instagram: @stopschoolcuts

➡️Through email. Share your action with the campaign at campaigns@schoolcuts.org.uk.