How is it some state schools can offer so much more than others?

DSs grammar school has classes of 30, whereas DS2s comp has classes of 25. So that seems like a huge saving.

Pupil premium money has to be spent in "closing the gap' Nd schools have to publish what they spend it on. Our local secondary spends it on booster sessions, nature groups, 1-1 support, practical things like food, school uniform, printer tokens so kids can print their homework, homework clubs, school trips etc. It's not to spend on staging theatrical productions unless it directly supports the pp pupils and closes the gap. So having lots of children in pupil premium doesn't mean the school has a load of extra cash floating round, in fact it may be the opposite.

Parental contribution of £520 per annum would certainly be a dominant factor in a school having better facilities. I actually would be happy to pay that myself.

£10 a week is not hefty for parents who could afford £20,000 pa to go private though. I imagine their PP families do not pay! Unless they are well paid senior service families of course!

Schools also choose how to spend their money. Grammars are not less well funded on the basic formula, but they will get much lower PP funding. They just, inevitably, have so few pupils who qualify. This means money has been redirected to the children who need it most - to raise standards. If money is ploughed into those who have the highest standards anyway, where does that leave everyone else? We know, of course. Failing at school, excluded from opportunities, or not going to university. Few of these things happen at a grammar school.

Also, in affluent areas more children are likely to do things like music lessons outside school and own their own instruments so putting on concerts etc is easier in those schools.
They are also more likely to have parents who are willing and able to offer things like work experience, sports coaching, careers workshops and so on.

"The current suggested contribution is £520 per year, per child.

the grammars here ask for £60 a month (direct debit please), the other schools ask for £35 a year.

We have a grammar school and a high school in our town. The grammar PTA raise around £50,000 a year and the "voluntary contribution" is £250 per child per year. The High school PTA raise around £1500 and the contribution is £30 per child.

Grammars don't get less funding, by the way. It might look that way because of their complete lack of children attracting pupil premium..........

and it's in a wealthy area
our local state primary PTA regularly raise £35k pa

the parental contribution at Tiffin is not voluntary
well they make it pretty hard to not pay it from what i hear. it is hefty.

Years back the desirable grammar in the next borough was asking parents for a voluntary contribution of £50 a month. No idea what it is now but multiply at least that by the number of pupils and you get a very tidy sum.

My DCs leafy comp has a sports facility that is highly comparable to very sporty Private schools - it has this because it did a deal with a big name sports club. They use it out of hours for training and funded a lot/most of its build. The school gave the land and uses it in the school day.

We don't have Grammar's here - which helps with fund raising.

golfball- I can't believe he walked into another job after that scandal!

The schools that get Pp do need it. I agree. It can be spent in quite a variety of ways though and the Sutton Trust has good evidence on what works. These children often have barriers to learning and may need mentoring and counselling. The money is not just spent on tuition if low self esteem, chaotic home life, poor attendance and lack of opportunities to go on school trips (for example) is a cause for lack of progress. Lots of things can help raise achievement. It has made quite a big difference to the funding of schools in more deprived areas. I was rather surprised Tiffin got as much as it did!

If schools are getting higher amounts of pupil premium it is because they need it and it will be spent on the pupils for whom it is received! So it is needed to provide additional academic support, booster groups, friendship clubs, access to extra-curricular activities etc. It is not extra cash which can be used to fund the school production or build a studio theatre.

The Pupil Premium at Tiffin Boys is circa £49k this year and was circa £44k last year. When I was working in education, 20 years ago, one of our grammar schools regularly raised in excess of £100k pa from parents. There are many parents who would have paid for an independent school if they had to. £1k here and there is not a huge deal to them. Alumni also contribute. I do think it is reasonable to be open if you levy a parental contribution. I notice they spend PP money on funding trips for their PP children so they may also use the parental levy money for funding aspects of school life for less well off boys. I would be interested to know if any of their pupils needs to "close the gap" but they do have free school meals pupils. Presumably they are very bright though, or they would not be there.

I live in a grammar school county. There were always stark differences between the provision in the secondary modern schools and the grammar schools. The run down buildings belonged to the secondary moderns. The grammar heads were a powerful lobby group. Councillors love the grammar schools. Local and big business loves the grammar schools. In years gone by, they were favoured, especially regarding buildings. The local boys grammar has squash courts.

In my county there has been a move to redress the imbalance and close the gap. The grammars have squealed as they have no gap to close and are less well funded than they were. This will not make up for years of imbalance. For years the type of child that needs pp funding was never recognised as being special. The secondary schools really struggled to meet their needs. It was expensive and no extra funding was earmarked for such things as attendance officers, mentoring, time-out rooms, pastoral care, home/school liaison - the list is endless. All the things mentioned in earlier posts too!

Our old school had a 'voluntary' contribution - except you got a red letter bill at the end of the year if you hadn't paid it!

It was used for extracurricular activities etc - so we paid it as we used lots of clubs/equipment etc

Tiffin might have had even better facilities etc if it wasn't for a certain cash-mishandling scandal.

It wasn't publicly linked to the departing headmaster, but interestingly he messed up at his next school too.

Sometimes it's down to a few dedicated staff putting on extra activities like plays in their spare time. A school in a city or attractive area can attract more energetic staff and be more likely to keep them longer. Also a larger school can get economies of scale for staff and upkeep and save a bit of money compared to Joe Bloggs rural comp in the middle of nowhere. And again it's a vicious circle of staff being less likely to want to work in a 'boring' school.

Fundraising in a wealthy area with some wealthy parents is much easier - parents know people who can provide really cool raffle prizes, and parents and their friends buy lots of tickets and are happy to support fundraising dinners and quizzes etc. Local primaries here vary from ones that struggle to make £5k a year for the PTA, to ones a mile away (same size) that generate £50-100k easily. Guess which ones will get new sports sheds, playground kit, etc?

Deprivation/affluence affects schools in so many ways. It is not just fundraising. Schools with a deprived intake have to spend so much more on bought-in services for behaviour support, exclusions, Educational Psychologists - the list is endless. The extra pupil premium money they get is supposed to be spent in helping to close the achievement gap, so it should not really be spent on these ancilliary services. And social issues linked to deprivation tend to take up a huge amount of management time too - headteachers on the phone to social services, child protection departments and so on. Plus dealing with parently complaints about behaviour, bullying etc. Staff turnover tends to be higher in these schools. So it is no surprise that schools find it harder to get an Ofsted 'Good' rating when everything is stacked against them. Many do manage it of course. But mainly it's a big vicious circle.

Grammar schools, on the whole, have high-achieving, motivated children and parents, and low deprivation. They have a massive head start.

It's a really interesting question which I've never thought about. Am gobsmacked by the level of contribution requested by Tiffin. But I do see that my children's comp had around £10,000 from the PTA last year. That's clearly not going to happen everywhere. They also have very strong links with local businesses and the nearest university and a lot of extra curricular events are sponsored. Someone is clearly very good at twisting people's arms. It's an aspect of social inequality that isn't really talked about (having said which, this is the least posh school in a very wealthy area, so I dare say the others are also doing reasonably well)

I don't know. My dc's non-selective London comp seems to be well resourced enough to keep class sizes at around 20 - 23. He's only got 6 kids in his Latin class (year 7).