So...the government reckons they allocate £6600 for education per pupil......

[ClutterJunkie]

so what i'd like to do is find my autistic sons a place at a supportive school...and turn up on the 1st day of term with a cheque for £6600 (from the government!)...and i'll pay the rest

oh!if only it were that simple!!!!

Its all very well being told how marvellous they are for budgeting £6600 for each child....but to then have the fiasco of not being able to send your child to the right school...well.....what's teh point.

my youngest has just had a 10 week special educational needs intensive placement - 10 weeks being in the 'right' place..... i would pay for that provision....but i'm not allowed to.

Really - £6600. Where does it go?

That's about the same as DD - Y5 - private school fees. It's a stand alone school so it has to support its own finance department, maintenance and groundstaff, etc so no economies of scale on using LEA resources.

yes they were on about how this 'closes the gap between private and state schools'

just got me thinking whether there is a way to persuade the government to start a voucher scheme like nursery vouchers !!!!! then we could use them wherever WE want...and the rubbish schools would HAVE to improve...as noone would go there!!!

(needless to say i am not very savvy on politics....and i'm probably missing the point bigtime!!!!)

That is more than we are paying at our DD's school and they only have 16 per class (at reception more like 10 by Y4). It is just a small local school. I thought the government only gave about £4000 per year although I don't know where I got that figure, it may be really old.

Don't know wtf they are spending it on.

It isn't my pay, and it isn't the facilities where i work

probably pay and new initiatives - and conferences to launch said initiatives, like the one I went to on weds with posh refreshments throughout the day and a 3 course lunch in a 4 start hotel so much more important than text books

Does this include costs of education-related civil service? Or LEAs?

It must do. Otherwise the school I work in will be funded to over £8 million a year. And if that money is coming in I'd like to know where it is being spend. Buggered if I can see

Oh it's not until 2010 it's going to hit that level. By then private school fees for junior/preps will prob be closer to 10k!! According to HBOS , (opens a word document) Average Annual Private School Fees for Day Pupils 1995 - £4,386, 2005 - £8,388

BBC News:

Total education spending in England was £29bn in 1997 and is £60bn this year. Of the £74.4bn total promised for 2010, £10.2bn is capital spending.

Spending per pupil, which was £2,500 in 1997, would from now to 2010 rise by a further 10% in real terms to £6,600, Mr Brown said.

This was "continuing to narrow the gap in investment per pupil between state and private schools".

Message withdrawn

I do wonder when this government will wake up and smell the coffee and realise that throwing money at things isn't necessarily the answer. I also have heard that they are planning to 'close the gap' on the amount spent on pupils at state compared to private schools. Until there is real reform in the public sector all this money will not make the difference it should.

On the point of vouchers, I do hope this happens one day but I think it will be a very long time before it does. We are told we have a choice and this would give us real choice. However in reality that is not what they want since many many more parents (imo) would send their kids to independant schools/the best state schools. This would widen the gap even further with those terrible middle class parents choosing to perhaps top up the vouchers to get their child into a good school.

Well why don't I get a penny of it for educating my kids at home?