More funding for the education sector?

[chopc]

The government has magicked up / created money to pay people's wages/ support businesses etc - surely it can do the same for the education sector so that it can invest more money in day portacabins and the like to get students back to school?

[user1497207191]

I don’t think that’s how the Nightingale hospitals were built.

How many schools are there compared with Nightingale Hospitals?

[DippyAvocado]

This situation has really highlighted what those of us who work in education already knew - the youth of today are not a priority to this government. They have cut budgets and in turn cut school staff, sold off land to property developers in some areas, crammed our children into rooms that are far too small, increased class sizes whilst removing teaching assistants and expect us to provide a world class education that competes with other countries.

It's an absolute insult and would be funny if it wasn't lives we were talking about.

It's about time this country was progressive when it comes to education. We have a real chance of changing things for the better if they really want to.

Completely agree. With the coming recession, school funding is going to get even worse though. I don't even know how schools are supposed to operate with less funding.

I've been a teacher since mid-way through the last Labour government. There were still unsatisfactory things - stupid initiatives from people who'd never been in a classroom that they changed their mind about after you'd spent a year trying to implement them - but the funding and resources were so much better. Lots of specialist support for SEN pupils, outside training for pupils and staff, good budgets for resources in school, Building Schools for the Future programme, investment in technology. I remember how exciting it was when Smartboards were brought in during my second year of teaching. I am still teaching off a Smartboard that was installed in 2005 in my classroom. We can't afford the subscription for the software any more though, so it's basically functions not much better than a standard whiteboard.

[ohthegoats]

Interesting the difference in take up between Wales and England - it's almost as if parents trust the Welsh government to do the right thing by them!! As a comparison.... clown show...

[DrMadelineMaxwell]

Were going back on a rota for all year groups in a fortnight. 88% of parents want their child to have a place overall.
I have only one parent saying no and other classes have 100% yes.

[ineedaholidaynow]

Schools are quite busy at the moment, don’t think they have time to spend ages working out a fully costed plan for funding they will never receive.

Schools I am a governor for are setting their budgets for next year, they are having to cut staff not increase them, and I am talking teaching staff, so having to mix year groups. It is horrendous and depressing.

[Appuskidu]

Or each school should prepare a fully costed plan and apply for funding to make it happen

I don’t think that’s how the Nightingale hospitals were built.

[ohthegoats]

On the applying for funding issue. How about comparing it to the provision of laptops for vulnerable children? That's been an emergency measure, so a proper 'crisis times' comparison.

When did that come out? 20th April. 8 weeks ago.

I don't know any schools in our LA who have had one laptop, let alone the number they asked for.

Soooooo, we need £35k for a portacabin and £25k for a teacher... and we need them both in 10 weeks... hmm...

[Piggywaspushed]

That is also not how furlough or the Nightingale hospitals worked.

[Piggywaspushed]

I remember applying for funding once. It took six months to be processed and another six months to receive any of the money.

[Piggywaspushed]

The government has already said there is no funding for extra cleaning , for example.

[ineedaholidaynow]

Where can you apply for funding?

[user1497207191]

The government need to be more positive and have more of a ‘can do’ attitude with increasing their education budget to heads or no schools will be opening further for a long while yet.

Or each school should prepare a fully costed plan and apply for funding to make it happen.

We really don't want to go down Labour's scatter-gun approach to spending where money was given and then the recipient was put under pressure to spend it, often very unwisely.

[ineedaholidaynow]

What would happen with GCSEs?

[ohthegoats]

What about just writing off this last term and a half, and starting the new school year in January? All go back to how it was before lockdown. Next school year is shortened, no statutory testing, get it back on track.

No one starts school, no one starts university. Hmm... maybe that's got funding issues too.

[Appuskidu]

Headteachers and governors should be thinking of ways to make things work rather than constantly whinging about how things can't work. How about a bit of proactivity and positive thinking

If the government said to heads, ‘what are your best solutions, money is no object’, that’s exactly what heads would be doing!

Heads can’t decide to rent eg 9 portacabins or the local pub, scout hut or community centre and advertise for/hire 9 additional teachers, as they have NO money in the budget to do that.

The government need to be more positive and have more of a ‘can do’ attitude with increasing their education budget to heads or no schools will be opening further for a long while yet.

[Nat6999]

Ds school wouldn't have enough land to put enough portacabins on, school built to have 1800 pupils, has 2180 pupils due to overcrowding, if classes were 15 pupils, would need 60 portacabins to house up to Y11. The biggest joke is that our education authority has masses of land where they closed schools down & merged schools all standing empty, they knocked the schools down to sell the land but put so many planning restrictions on the land, nobody wants to buy it, we could have had enough school places for smaller class sizes even before the Covid crisis.

[Nat6999]

Ds school wouldn't have enough land to put enough portacabins on, school built to have 1800 pupils, has 2180 pupils due to overcrowding, if classes were 15 pupils, would need 60 portacabins to house up to Y11. The biggest joke is that our education authority has masses of land where they closed schools down & merged schools all standing empty, they knocked the schools down to sell the land but put so many planning restrictions on the land, nobody wants to buy it, we could have had enough school places for smaller class sizes even before the Covid crisis.

[ohthegoats]

My plan for education longer term (state ed) is to turn primaries into something similar to private.

Start at 8am, breakfast all together.
Teachers teach until 1pm.
Few breaks, none very long - have you seen the 30 seconds it takes a primary school kid to snarf lunch down?
Teachers then have no-contact time every day until 4pm.
During this time, children do the specialist stuff, taught by specialists.
(Art, music, drama, singing, sports, languages)
Teachers have PPA and do small group interventions or do training.
They have to stay on the school premises.

Everyone finishes at 4pm.
No child takes homework home, they are free for clubs in the early evening.
No teacher takes work home, they can have a life.
After school club can be a thing until 6, but if parents have dropped off at 7.45, then maybe less take up to cover working hours.

It bigs up the arts and sports, taught by people who are actually good at them - which every government allegedly says they are doing. It prepares children for widely for specialism along with their talents/interests at secondary.

Teachers can choose to teach one of the specialism afternoons, so it's not making teaching 'just' core + couple of foundation subjects.

Ta daaaaa...

Not sure how much it would cost compared to current system. When we looked at it in my small primary school (last job), it was sort of do-able. We spoke to a few parents to sound it out and only complaint was 'I like eating breakfast with my children'. I can't think of anyone who REALLY likes eating breakfast with their children!!

[ohthegoats]

How about a bit of proactivity and positive thinking.

We don't get listened to. No one needs experts, we just need the army to build schools in church halls. Or something.

[Piggywaspushed]

As the OP actually says, where is government investment in helping to fund solutions?

[Piggywaspushed]

Where's the money user? Schools aren't even getting extra money for soap. Where are the desks?

There is an article in The BBC today showing exactly how proactive one school is being. Please don't make assumptions.

But , since the DfE changes it's guidance several times a day, you can see why schools aren't rushing to commit to high cost plans.

Are we really assuming these mothballed buildings will still not be in use in September and beyond?

[ineedaholidaynow]

@user1497207191 can you tell me where this money is coming from? Schools have not been given any additional funding. We didn't even have a budget for books this year never mind 3 additional portacabins! If schools had a magic money tree I am sure they could come up with some amazing ideas. As it is they have done amazingly with the limited funds they have.

[user1497207191]

We have moved such a long way from Education education education....

Indeed we have. It was Blair who said that and then went on to build "technical" schools that no one wanted and ended up getting closed. He also loaded schools with decades of PFI payments for shiny new schools that weren't fit for purpose.

Shame he didn't actually bother to make fundamental changes. As with the NHS, all he did was splash the cash to be paid for by generations to come through ruinous PFI deals. "Let's all congratulate Blair for the shiny new school/hospital" - it's all borrowed money at high interest rates and there aren't more staff and the underlying inefficiencies and problems havn't been addressed. But at least the new buildings looked good on the TV!

[user1497207191]

There's no one size fits all. Some schools could rent a portacabin, some will be close to other places such as village halls, community centres, libraries, etc. Some schools will have assembly halls, gyms, sports halls etc that could be re-purposed.

Even the NHS which is usually slow to adapt, has rented our local football stadium hospitality suites for midwifery consultations/appointments.

There are hotels sat empty which could be converted to temporary schools.

Headteachers and governors should be thinking of ways to make things work rather than constantly whinging about how things can't work. How about a bit of proactivity and positive thinking. Otherwise schools won't be back to normal this time next year.

Or does everyone expect Boris to personally visit every school to tell them what to do?

[MsJaneAusten]

“ This is what state schools should be aiming for long term. It would create a much more successful schooling system and would save money down the line in trying to support those children whom the system has failed.”

Did you mean ‘state schools’ there @Worriedmum999? Or ‘the government’? I’m sure most state school leaders would love what you’ve described, but they don’t stand a chance of getting it!