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?

Holiday We’ve got two large teacher training providers nearby that churn out science and maths NQTs, leading SLT to think that any teacher is replaceable. Unfortunately none of our hires in recent years have lasted longer than a year or two, and more experienced teachers are leaving. At some point SLT will realise that the level of teacher churn and inexperience is detrimental to the educational experience of the kids, but not so far, so they don’t treat experienced teachers particularly well. In fact it seems to be the NQTs that get all the inducements. They get their own classrooms, for example, where the people who will be picking up the pieces when they quit don’t.

This thread throws up some interesting issues and has been enlightening.

However, one or two things I just can't get my head around, which has changed since I was at school..... Why are schools providing basic stationery to students?? Children are expected to be in uniform, so in the same vein, why aren't they expected to provide the basic pens/rulers/rubbers etc. I understand in very deprived areas this will be an issue, but surely the majority of parents can afford to send their children in to school with the basics. Peanuts in the general scheme of things, I know, but still......

Schools used to be able to replace textbooks when they needed to, and departments might be told "not this year, keep using the old ones"

Really? It's 27 years since I left school and textbooks were certainly being reused back then

I haven't read all of the responses so apologies if this has been repeated.

I sit on 10 school governing bodies as a Clerk, the schools vary from privileged areas to deprived areas, academies to LA-maintained. All are in a pretty similar state.

Reasons are:

In the last year, the Unions agreed a 2% pay rise for teaching staff. This is on top of the cost of living award. I'm pleased they did agree it after such a long pay freeze for teachers, however, this has resulted in tens of thousands for each school which wasn't budgeted for. This has impacted on pension costs the schools pay too.

The number of parents applying for Free School Meals has dropped because kids get FSM up until age 7 now, meaning the school misses out on a great deal of funding (£900 per pupil) for those who don't apply.

The LAs are being cut left right and centre. Meaning, service the LA previously provided (training support, service level agreements for things such as cleaners, supply teacher services) are being cut, and schools are having to go externally to fund these, often at a greater cost.

Staff sickness and stress is on the increase due to immense pressure from Ofsted, therefore more money being spent on supply cover or longer term temporary contracts to cover posts.

There are falling school numbers. A few years ago, there were not enough school places to match birth rates. They increased school sizes, built new schools. Now there's a drop. Schools are still having to pay for full staffing, for larger buildings etc., and are now having to make redundancies and merge classes together.

There are loads more examples I could delve in to. Just last week I sat on a governing body meeting of a school who is not reaching targets but has to cut its staffing because of falling school numbers. This is a school who has already made cuts where possible, and has nothing additional budgeted for for next year's budget compared to this year's, but has a projected 6 figure deficit for the financial year due to the hike in costs of what they must pay, and the drop in pupil funding due to falling numbers.

I really feel for schools at the moment. There's so much to pay and no money to pay for it with.

ShatnersWig

They do usually reuse text books it's just that all of the GCSE curriculums changed in more or less one go so all of the old text books became obsolete at the same time. In most schools they have multiple classes for the same subject running simultaneously so you need many copies of each text book.

@shatnerswig I wasn't suggesting that they would be replaced frequently, but when sets were falling apart or when they had become quite outdated. And the point is that the answer could be no!

By the way the hourly rate that SEND funding is based on was set over 10 years ago. Actual hourly rates have gone up in that time.