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?

Well said WhenIsTheEasyBit and we could do with a few more Woodward and Bernsteins following the money around there, as I'm sure it's been a lucrative gravy train for many people who were in a position to make it happen

Small primary school here. The government’s little extras package for schools was announced - in the region of £10,000 per school. Great we think, that means we can keep the member of staff we are losing at the end of this year who is really needed to support our weaker students and students with behaviour issues. No. The little extras funding is ring fenced and we can only spend it on capital projects. So yes nice to have but not what our school desperately needs. Currently, we cannot make the budget balance for next year. Staffing is our most expensive cost and we have trimmed to the bone there. To add to that the MAT team funding had been cut virtually completely and support they were providing for vulnerable students now falls to the school. If we employed only NQTs, we’d be okay but experience costs money.
DC secondary is in deficit to hundreds of thousand pounds. I’m sure they could be slightly more efficient but not to the point they could recoup that money.
School funding is a shambles. I’m not sure what the answer is but parents need to know the dire straits schools are in.

paid by individuals, not by the state

Well, yes, upfront, in theory. But it is also not "technically" true to say that the state doesn't contribute to university costs, because 80% of the fees ARE eventually paid by the state, because the students never earn enough to repay the debt.

A brilliant interview on BBC Breakfast this morning twitter.com/chunkymark/status/1104317813794189313?s=19

Clearly shows the DoE is "deluded"

Everyone going on about text books...the reality is a pack of glue sticks is 1/3 of my annual class budget. On top of that I need to buy everything else. So far this year I have spent at least £200 extra on resources for my class. I've even bought furniture from ikea myself because we haven't got the money. My class have the little plastic stools to sit on because there is no money for new chairs. That is the reality of the school budget. If I didn't buy it they would be sitting on the floor.

A family members child with special needs was on a part time table for 6 months because the school couldn't afford the extra support the child needed. The child is now out of school completely because the school said they couldn't cope and there are no spaces in any suitable local authority school. This is a 7 year old with several disabilities that were diagnosed before the child started school. There are several thousand other children in a similar situation.

The government funds schools with an amount per pupil. There are more pupils in the system now than 5 years ago so technically the government is spending more on education. Unfortunately the amount per pupil has gone down. This means that schools receive less money to educate more pupils. This funding pays for building maintenance, wages, resources, technology, SEN children without their own funding. It is virtually impossible to make the books balance and provide a decent education.

Secondary school bursar here.
There is no money.
New GCSEs have pushed our exam fees up by £20k in the past 2 years (more exams) + £5kpa more on invigilators (more exams) + new text books for the new curriculum.
Paper has gone up around 8% in the past year - predicted to go higher due to Brexit - when you use circa 2000 reams of A4 a year that's significant - also pushes up the cost of exercise books etc. (It should go without saying we shop around to get the cheapest deal)
Gas, oil and electric we estimate will increase by over 10% next year compared to this year(from new FY in April)
increase in foundation living wage and assimulation of support staff onto the new NJC scale will cost us about £11k next year
Huge increase in teachers superann from Sept 19 (some funding promised to cover this next year, but not sure after that)
Much less money available for major repairs now, so we live with the leaky roof for now and pray that the 1970 oil boiler doesn't pack up as we've been told it may not be repairable next time and the estimate for a new one is £80k that we don't have.
It's a struggle to even afford basic minor repairs to our 1920s building. For example we've got three different areas with issues with badly worn out flooring which are now becoming a H&S hazard. I'm hoping to squeeze out enough money from somewhere to replace one area next year, but we couldn't afford it this year and next year looks even tighter. What tiny amount of money we can afford to budget for property maintenance really has to be saved for absolutely essential repairs. (A door hanging off it's hinges was this week's example!)
The depressing truth is we could really do with some of our experienced teachers leaving to be replaced by NQTs. Of course we lose their experience as well then, but NQTs are way cheaper (for a while at least)
Need I go on?
There really is no money, Every non-staff cost that can be trimmed has been trimmed. Support staff (TAs and office staff) are already cut to the bone, any more and the school will struggle to function. The only thing left now is to cut is teacher costs. That means reducing curriculum options and losing teachers. Hopefully through natural wastage, if not then redundancy.
It is truly depressing. As the bursar people look to me for a different solution, but we have reached the point now where I can't see another option. We are already have a small deficit, we are under pressure from the LA to clear the existing deficit next year, not make it worse. As Mrs May would say "there is no magic money tree."
Please don't believe the government hype. It is true funding has gone up, but not enough to keep up with other rising costs, most of which we have no control over....

Talking about increased costs, there are things that might be overlooked like the new maths GCSE is 3 papers instead of 2. That costs more money when printing papers for mocks, past papers for the kids to do as practice etc.

Also, more and more teachers are quitting. It costs money to recruit to replace them. It costs money to pay for supply teachers whenever a teacher goes off sick with stress (which is an increasingly regular occurrence ime).

The DfE are constantly being told off for their shitty use of statistics. They have been reprimanded for having their head in their sand regarding the teacher recruitment and retention crisis (“teaching remains an attractive profession” is the constant refrain). They cannot be trusted to tell the truth.

A few people have mentioned ks1 free school meals. I thought these were paid for by the government and didn't come out of the school budget. I'm guessing from what's been said here, I'm wrong in my assumptions, but if that's the case, what happens if an eligible child doesn't take up the free school lunch? Does the school keep the money?

Though the free school meals are funded by the government, pupils who are eligible for free school meals would attract pupil premium funding but only if they apply for it. If the child is getting free meals anyway, parents don't apply for the funding, and the school loses out on a pupil premium payment (£1,320 per child in primary). Schools can use the pupil premium funding in a way that helps to raise the attainment of those pupils - this could be extra support staff, extra curricular activities etc. In some schools it's a huge chunk of money which can make all the difference for these pupils.

Free school meals are cost neutral for us, in that we get exactly what we pay for them back from the Government, but we do have the overheads of running a kitchen. There are a number of strategies schools can use to ensure that everyone elegible for PP is actually getting it - for us, that's not too much of an issue.

The increase in behavioural problems from otherwise "normal" families (ie, those with no obvious markers of deprivation) has to be seen to be believed, though.

I can't really comment on why, except that this fabled real terms increase must be distributed very unevenly.

10 years ago I was heading a core department and had a measly annual budget of £3k. There is now no budget. Essentials are ordered centrally but there's nothing at all for anything over and above that.

I'm a teacher in the independent sector (the state sector no longer offer my subject, or if they do try to get part-timers or non-specialists to teach it). We get approximate double per pupil what a state school gets, once you've factored in bursaries. Despite this, we are currently facing textbook shortages (So making our own resources); pay freezes; increased hours (e.g. extra duties, less PPA time); ban on photocopying (still not enough textbooks!) and no CPD (further training). This is pretty awful, but it was a choice between that or get rid of our bursaries. The main causes of this are: increased exam fees; complete change of GCSE and A level courses so had to try to replace all the textbooks in one go; introduction of autoenrolment; and a major upcoming increase in employers pension contributions. Many independents are pulling out of TPS because they can't take that expense and survive. The state schools don't have that option. We also do so much social care stuff and plug holes in lack of provision from NHS (mental health crisis). And we don't even have much poverty to deal with (just a few of those on bursaries who are really almost destitute). Again, state schools have to plug far more holes than we do due to local authority and NHS funding cuts.

Free school meals are not fully funded by the government for small schools. We got a subsidy to support the cost of wages for kitchen staff as the costs for staff wages are the same for production even though we have less children that eat the meals. Therefore we get less money to pay for the production. That supplementary money was retracted by the government a few years ago and so we have to spend a few thousand a year to pay for these. We don't have a kitchen at school so alongside the production costs we pay to another school, we have to pay for the food to be sent via taxi daily at a cost to the school at £20 per day.

My school's funding per pupil has gone down by over £1,000 since 2013.
Maybe that's why our Yr 7 is huge - so we make up the per pupil shortfall with more students. Except we need more books, more stationery, more resources for the increased number of kids. We also have more students with SEN, who need more support which needs TAs, teachers, mentors, pastoral staff.

A few people have mentioned ks1 free school meals. I thought these were paid for by the government and didn't come out of the school budget.

The amount we get is decided by the number of KS1eating a meal on census day. If the number on roll goes up or we have a few children absent on census day then we are effectively underfunded for future meals. This is why lots of schools will offer a “special “ menu on census day to encourage as many children as possible to take a meal on that day.

The depressing truth is we could really do with some of our experienced teachers leaving to be replaced by NQTs.

Although you express it reluctantly, I think this is a widely-held view. Unfortunately the perception seems to be skewed - the top of the pay scale should be regarded as the market value of an experienced teacher rather than a frustrating additional outlay. I absolutely would not do my job for £23k and as the conditions deteriorate it's little wonder that less experienced teachers leave. Once teachers reach the top of the scale they're regarded as job-hoggers who should move over (where? Living on what?) to make way for cheap NQTs.

GorkyMcPorky - I don't disagree with you - but the choice we face currently is either a cheaper way of resourcing the same curriculum or reducing the curriculum (and the corresponding staffing). Not much of a "choice" really is it....both are crap. One school local to me has already reduced their curriculum, only to see student numbers fall, which then means less funding. If you are not careful you can end up in a downward spiral.

Good experienced teachers are worth every penny of their UPS3 (I wouldn't chose to be a teacher!)

It doesn’t seem to be acknowledged that NQTs may be cheap but experienced teachers are needed to mentor and support them. In addition, student teachers need to be trained, and NQTs aren’t allowed to support them (understandably!). My department takes 4 PGCE students a year and we’ve really struggled timetabling them this year due to the increased number of NQTs in the department.

Good experienced teachers are worth every penny of their UPS3

If they’ve managed to make it to UPS3 which is certainly not a given with incentives on schools to keep pay costs down.

Go work in a school for a month and you will see the funding crisis. WE can't even afford to print a classes worksheets out, we have to set it as homework for them to do it. We are not replacing staff that are leaving because we cannot afford it. New stationary? Forget it.

Forget what statistics and reports tell you, go into a school and witness for yourself. I feel sorry for the children being educated today and in the immediate future- there is no way they are getting the best education possible simply due to underfunding

The depressing truth is we could really do with some of our experienced teachers leaving to be replaced by NQTs.

I am an experienced teacher of 15 years. I am a much stronger teacher now I have experience than I was in my first few years. At the highest point, I was on UPS2. A few years ago I took on a more family-friendly role and accepted a pay-cut to the main scale. Now it seems I'm still considered too expensive. You can almost see my HT praying for some of us experienced teachers to resign so she can employ NQTs.

Reality is while more money to set aside for education it doesn't mean it gets filtered down.

So for us in Wales for example the money goes to the assembly, which they they decide how to "dish it out" and it gets send to different councils, who then also decide how they chose to distribute it. The way they do that's it's really complex (for me anyway) and they will work out number of children, children with pupil premium, children with SEN, children with statements, children in care etc as well as working out square footage for how much they get towards upkeep of the the school etc. Then when they have made their calculations money is given to the school who will then decide how to distribute it. If they go over their budget it's deducted from the next year.

Schools then get that pot of money, sickness, maternity etc all have an impact on that budget, as well as how schools use the money. So for example, the council will offer central services like legal support, HR support, swimming lessons, music support etc, it's in to each school if they chose to take up all, some or none of these services. Also the programmes schools use, such as reading programme, or even behaviour programmes, they all cost quite a lot, these services seem to cost upwards of £800. Using outside services like asking for educational psychology assessments all cost considerably.

Schools need maintained too, some schools need more maintenance than others.

Parents expect more too, I know I do, I have children with SEN and I expect the school to be inclusive (up-to a point at least), most parents would want that too.

I can only comment on my school but as a Governor we are seeing a real cost loss of about 5% which is likely to continue year on year.

We may have an increase in funding, I don't think we have seen it though (I would need to see the past few years but it's hard to really see as the way they allot funding changes), so for example, county used to pay our council tax, but now they give us the cash in our pots and then take it off us, so we would potentially see an increase but it's taken straight back off us. Our central services increase year in year, so the cost of transport, HR, legal, music, grass cutting, our Clark to governors, etc (I can't remember it all but there are probably 15 or so) all raise yearly, as well as the things mentioned like gas, electricity etc. The things you probably thought the council did for free, we actually pay for.

Hope that helps a bit, I'm fairly new to getting to grasps with it myself but we really are seeing a loss.

If we employed only NQTs, we’d be okay but experience costs money

It’s such a depressing thought. Where are all of the UPS teachers going to end up? We have to work until we are 68, we still need to get paid!

When I started teaching, there was a staff of mainly experienced teachers, with a spattering of NQTs. This worked well and the older ones carried the mental load and modelled good practice. Now, we have a staff of NQTs or teachers in year 1/2/3 with ONE UPS teacher who is on her knees trying to hold the rest of them together and mop up endless tears!!