To wonder which is true - school funding

[ThereWillBeAdequateFood]

Head teachers are warning out a school funding crisis. Stating they have having to increase class sizes and are struggling to pay for text books.

But apparently school funding has increased .

What is going on with school funding? Are schools expected to do loads more with slightly more money?

Funding was also better in the past.

Our funding has actually gone down and we were once the worst funded county.

user what was the point of that post?

theworld thanks so much, I didn’t know deprivation funding had reduced (or block funding).
You are so right with the smoke and mirrors. The chancellor announces £40K extra funding for “little extras schools need” whilst taking cash away from another area.

“Until 2010, England's school budgets had been increasing steadily, with particularly steep increases in spending between 1997 and 2007.”

Hmmm, I wonder what happened in 2010?

I’m pretty sure schools budgets are public documents - I know my kids school gives parents access to the budget documents. Have a look and see what money is coming in and where the money is going.

I started teaching in 97 and finished in 15. The last 5 years of my career were so depressing in terms of watching all of our resources disappear. I know things have become even worse in the 4 years since I left, as I’m a governor at my kids school and have to approve the budget. I’ve had to sit through redundancy process meetings and decide we can’t afford to replace staff. It’s shocking how underfunded schools are. I’m pretty certain it’s the same in all public services.

My DC's primary school makes some strange budget choices. It has a falling roll (poor reputation) so has lost a couple of LSAs, others had hours cut. They've bought a minibus, as has the neighbouring "sister" school (it's in a MAT, "sister" school is about 9 miles away). O.k. this is a different budget to school staff costs, but they've employed driver/caretaker for both. It's not really clear why, mostly they seem to use the minibus to shuffle catering equipment between the schools.

I think it's an experiment. How far can we actually go before we break the country?

Capital funding has been reduced by 75% rural schools with fewer children and schools were there are less pupil premium students are particularly suffering under the new formula.

@meditrina, quite simply it's because not all schools were improved! The building schools for the future programme was scrapped by Gove in 2010, and those who hadn't started the work yet just didn't get done. Last year it snowed inside my classroom, and my school is relatively new (1990s)

Those costs were a hell of a lot cheaper 20-30 years ago, with fewer school children to buy for

Well this is where I get confused. Yes those costs have definitely gone up. But funding per pupil (secondary school) was about £3,800 now it’s about £6,200. So to look at just pupil funding those costs are covered.

It’s when other posters point out that disadvantaged pupil funding has dropped and block funding has dropped you start to see how schools are really struggling for cash.
Sorry this has got people’s backs up, I’m just a lay person who doesn’t understand how schools are funded. Thanks for enlightening me.

I think it's an experiment. How far can we actually go before we break the country?

Yeah but it will only hurt poor people so who cares —dark sense of humour warning—

There are 9% more pupils than there were at the start.
Massive cut per pupil.

This is incorrect as the money is paid per pupils. More pupils, more money, less pupils, less money. This was highlighted in the programme "School" where a headteacher was struggling to fill places at a failing school and therefore was in a downward spiral of funding.

Interestingly, we are in the top of the tables for international funding as a percentage of GDP. I know this doesn't take into account pupils numbers, but then, large classes don't necessarily equate to bad educational outcomes. In fact large classes, more pupils, means more funding, and the economy of scale should therefore come into play. It is a complex problem, and not everything is down to funding alone.

Text books,what text books.We had to buy all set books for English,all revision guides.Work and study has been online or with printed worksheets.
Dd is in year 11 and is treating it all carefully so that the school can have it for next year as they have nothing.We are rural so the funding was already way down with no where to go.
The School has not been an academy for long so we await more change.At the moment the provision for children who need extra help or needs has been good but this may not stay the same for long.

Wrt school buildings - some new schools were built, not all.

I don't know of any new secondary schools in my borough, one that I know well is 80 years old!!!! There are several new primary schools but the secondary schools were all built pre 1960s.

Hey, how about we solve this by stop voting Tory, eh? :D

Almost exactly what I said to my SIL when she was complaining about the lack of resources at her son's school. Shortly before I suggested that they pay their fair share of tax, instead of pretending they live in the houses they do up so that they don't have to pay CCG when they sell them.

That went down well. Not.

They're millionaires too, could easily afford to go private.

@meditrina

I am concerned about the claims of dilapidated buildings.

Labour spent a huge amount on rebuilding schools, and they shouid not be crumbling again so soon. Or was that programme, much vaunted at the time, somewhat less that it seemed? Or just not well done? Either way, a shame, because that one small part of the issue really shouid not be happening again yet.

They didn't replace anything near all of them. The programme (Building Schools For the Future) only ran for a few years, five I think.

Have a look at schools near you - do they all look like they were replaced in 2005-2010? Or are some still crumbling Victorian hell holes?

was about £3,800 now it’s about £6,200.

A ha! And here is the crux of it. It is not £6,200 for every pupil.

Primary children get £3,500 (minus the universal free school meal scheme)

In secondary, Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9) get £3,735.24
Key Stage 4 gets £4,018.65.

Pupil Premium can get up to £6,200 but often, Pupil Premium comes with no extra funding.

The Funding Allocation Pack is an interesting read!

How does the maths work out now, OP?

I gave up teaching some time ago. One of the things that surprised me most was the school's bill for examination entries. Is anyone up to date with the costs per pupil of GCSE entries ? I think it's something parents don't think of.

^This

KittyVonCatsington

Precisely!

Science is another problem area, we are loseing science technicians in high schools supposedly to save money. But what this means is many are running with not enough techs to supply all needed practicals. Children then get less hands on experience and even struggle to get the required practicals for the GCSE'S. We as normal have no money left at this time of year. So no extra supplies, even basic things like glue, paper towels, soap. Teacher's end up being in there own supplies in order to carry on with work. We techs are resourceful lot, recycling anything we can.
Oh and don't start me on text books, two years ago we had a full set of GCSE science ones. They slowly disappear to where I don't know, but we don't have the funds to replace them. Study guides are expected to be bought by students but we buy them in bulk so they are cheaper from school then anywhere else.

OP now hopefully you've learned that the stock government phrase "we've increased the funding here" is a misleading heap of bull crap. Good that one more person has found out hey?

A ha! And here is the crux of it. It is not £6,200 for every pupil

Sorry I got my info from the Institute for Fiscal Studies (Nuffield foundation). It just says what the pupil funding is per pupil - not that it’s only for Pupil premium pupils.

OP now hopefully you've learned that the stock government phrase "we've increased the funding here" is a misleading heap of bull crap

Like a magicians trick. Look at the extra money handed over here - ignore that I’m taking twice as much from somewhere else.

Building schools for the future was pulled as soon as the Tories got into power. Many schools did not get their new buildings.

I am not sure about exam entry fees, but in 2017 when DS missed out on a grade 5 for English it was sent away to be remarked at a cost of £55 which we paid as the school wasn't able to.

Oh and can I encourage any parent's who can afford it to offer to pay for any broken science equipment by your child. Even if accidentally even what seems like a cheap £5 glass beaker is quite a dent for us.