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?

We installed a portacabin last summer. Including the electrics, plumbing and kitting it out, we paid in excess of £35,000. That holds ONE extra class.

Also the planning permission was a nightmare and took months.

The reality will be they scrap SD and tell us to get on with it.

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.

Why would schools buy portacabins? Why not rent them for as long as they were needed? Pretty silly to buy a portacabin that may only be needed for a year.

@BertNErnie is that a one off cost?

@Piggywaspushed there was a hollow laugh when I was typing about the additional funding!

@chopc it would be great to have the extra funding! So funding is not just for portacabins and qualified staff but for all the associated infrastructure, including lighting and heating, and resources as well.

Education has not been a priority for decades by any government. Lots of promises but very poor follow up.

Why not rent them for as long as they were needed?

Because obviously there are 200,000 porta cabins in the U.K. waiting to be rented.

@ineedaholidaynow yes it was a one off cost. There seems to be a lot of red tape in relation to having these in schools and I assumed we would just get one and crane it in, but we needed planning permission which went back and forth for months.

To the poster who asked why we bought it, this is because we expanded a year group and therefore will need to keep the extra classroom for at least 6 years.

In my DC’s school 80% of eligible pupils have returned.

Because obviously there are 200,000 porta cabins in the U.K. waiting to be rented.

And 200,000 ex teachers healthy, willing and able to teach in them waiting in the wings...!

Oh these ridiculous suggestions about portacabins.

They cost tens of thousands of pounds, take ages to install and don't have teachers to staff them! It's not a pop up tent.

The reality will be they scrap SD and tell us to get on with it.

I suspect, once someone with some idea about the reality of school buildings and staffing takes a look, this is most likely even if it's just applicable for schools.

This is where private schools come into their own and as a country we should be aiming to make state schools more like private. My children’s school has no more than 15 in a class. It’s in a modern, large building with every classroom having their own door to the outside and toilet block so they are having practically the whole school back over the coming weeks with no issue at all. Each class has a teacher and a TA so effectively one adult for 7.5 children. No child is left behind and there is a team of additional support teachers as well who take children out throughout the day for catch up programs. 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. The staff are generally happier as they have a lot of PPA time due to children being taught by specialists for music, PE, languages and science. This should be a wake up call that our state system cannot continue as it is and I say that as an ex teacher.

@Worriedmum99 and how much does that cost you? I bet you are paying more per term than a state school gets per pupil per year. At my son's private school I think you pay extra if you get individual support.

At the last election, education was rarely mentioned.

An article in The Times today quoted a senior Tory MP saying Johnson has no interest in education.

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

I would love to think that education funding will rise. But it's a pipe dream.

@Duckfinger

We don't want more money ( well other than what we always need). What we want is to scrap social distancing in school and get classes back to 30 sowe can get on with sorting out the mess that's been created over the last few months. The stats just don't justify this level of disruption. Over 90% of children in relevant year groups have returned so clearly the parents at our school feel the same as us. Our head made it clear in the letter we would not be social distancing within our bubbles.

I do want the government to pay for the extra cleaning that they themselves have recommended. At the moment they will only pay if there is an outbreak.

“ 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!

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?

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 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.

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?

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

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.

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!!

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.