Michael Gove, to slash £162m of sports funding in English schools

[legostuckinmyhoover]

Just when is he going to stop. This man has absolutely no idea. And, they keep on saying...'we are not cutting schools budgets...honest!''

www.guardian.co.uk/education/2010/nov/20/michael-gove-schools-sport-funding

yes very progressive using free school meals budget to fund free schools

"banished are the days of bull, Balls (Ed), bile and Bolshevik baloney." Admirable grasp of alliteration there, claig (did it take you long?), but I really would love to see a detailed compare and contrast of the policies of the last government and those of the Bolsheviks. Heaven forbid that one should be a tad hysterical in these debates.

Things have changed since Bolshevik times. The progressives have progressed, they have tweaked and fine-tuned barmy brain-dead Bolshevik beliefs and painted them with a progressive pastel pallette to disguise the deep red beneath the veneer. But one thing hasn't changed. The Bolshevik elite sent their children to the top schools, and many of the progressives send their children to our top public and private schools, whilst imposing progressive policies on state school children.

Gove wants to change this. Unlike the progressives, he cares about the children in state schools. He wants to make sure that they get an education that is as good as the one that the progressives choose for their children. Of course, this is bound to put the progressives' noses out of joint, because they will no longer be able to buy their children a privileged education. Their children will no longer be able to gain social mobility just by dint of the progressives' money; now they will have to compete on a level playing field with state school children. That's why they will do everything they can to stop Gove improving the education system.

Slightly off topic, but one more thing Gove has thrown into the ring is the abolition of FMSiS (Financial Management Systems in Schools). FMSiS was a complete, unmitigated, bureaucratic nightmare whereby schools had to produce page after page of evidence to show that they were doing everything right financially. I have spent hours of my life, which I'll never get back, on FMSiS.

However, once a school had reached the FMSiS standard, you could be damned sure that they were on top of things. It was very valuable - we've had local cases where schools have ended up £20 million in deficit, and that would have been hard, if not impossible, had they used the FMSiS guidelines.

The replacement will apparently be "simpler". I just hope it's as watertight. Sometimes you really do need the bureaucracy - you can't just dismiss it all because you don't like the word.

"They complain about children being obese then get rid of funding for sports programmes that could help this. Not to mention taking away activities that keep kids out of trouble sometimes."

If children are obese through lack of exercise then thats down to the parents - not the teachers/state. There are hundreds of free things to do with children to exercise them.

Realisitically, an after school activity is rarely going to stop a child getting into trouble.

Anything that helps reduce the state control of the nanny state we have now has got to be good. Schools seem to have been given the responsibility of too many things that should be down to the parent.

I'd rather see sports coaches being cut from a schools budget or national funding than teachers or resources. Sports clubs can always be run by a private company or even volunteers.

how grim, and even more depressing that some are agreeing with it

you can have lots of careers in sports, they'll cut art next

claig - you've misunderstood the meaning of the word "progressive". From a random online dictionary:
favouring or advocating progress, change, improvement, or reform, as opposed to wishing to maintain things as they are.

By your own description, you feel that Gove is progressing things. It's not a dirty word.

But I did enjoy "barmy brain-dead Bolshevik beliefs and painted them with a progressive pastel pallette". You've really worked hard there.

School Olympics sounds like a daft idea.

'Schools seem to have been given the responsibility of too many things that should be down to the parent.'

I agree, and across all varieties of school.
Many children have a huge sense of entitlement without taking any responsibility, or understanding that the needs of others are as important as their own.

I think its sad that they are cutting sport in schools but if cuts have to be made then its probably not the worst place for them to do it.

Yes, that is what the dictionary says about the word 'progressive'. But we all know that when the socialists use the word 'progressive', it is their usual doublespeak; with them it means the exact opposite.

Gove is a progressive in the true sense of the word i.e. he is a conservative.

for his own amusement ffs

he is cutting spending because there is a huge public deficit. Perhaps if Labour hadn't buggered up the economy so much there would be more money for public spending

Of course no one wants to cut funding, it is sadly necessary.

How much does it cost to get kids to run around a park or playground?...certainly not 162 million.

I support MG and pretty much everything the Tories have done so far.

Labour spent money like it was going out of fashion - a lot of it on total crap - which is why we're bankrupt.

So Stop whinging you lefty liberal idiots, if you're worried about your kids lack of exercise - walk them to school .

Thanks, Claig. So good to have learnt that funding sports in school and a school--community sports liaison is North Korean socialism. Christ, I might never have known, and my son might have carried on with his Commie-Bastard fencing lessons. Near miss, that.

And it looks like he is going to lose his Commie-Bastard French Horn lessons too. He will soon be an ideologically pure clean slate of absent provision.

I think when we reduce sport to "running around a park or playground" we're going very wrong.

There are some positives though, the government seem to want to re-introduce competitive sport both within and between schools.

our schools already have competitive sport.

The changed funding isn't about returning to a more competitive sporting ethos, it really isn't. All of the sports extension activities that DS benefits from related to expenditure are competitive. The idea that there was a govt-imposed wishy-washy non-competitive dictat in school sports is just a fantasy.

Don't schools have PE teachers anymore? I'm confused.

They will have fewer PE teachers, they will lose the involvement community-based sports extension acitivies like Bikewise (cyling proficiency), and many others.

And that's fantastic news ... All this " no one can be a winner or a loser "

What was that all about?
I stopped going to sports days they became so boring.

There are winners and losers in society - it's good for kids to learn that at a young age.

Btw, agree with happymumofone - it's not the school's responsibility to fight obesity, encourage healthy living or instill a healthy level of self-esteem in children.

it's not fantastic news when they're cutting the funding to them.......

Eleison, the 'North Korean' reference was how Gove described Andrew Marr's thinking on the Andrew Marr show this morning. Watch it on iplayer and you will see how good Gove is. Gove said that the education budget had been increased. Unfortunately, due to the past economic mismanagement and lack or regulation of the banks, cuts have to be made.

It is a shame that your son's French horn lessons and fencing lessons may be cut, but I think it is better that they are cut than essentials that benefit the majority of children. Gove is wielding his epee in order to make the cuts that prior mismanagement have necessitated. He is trying to do it in as fair a way as possible, while still managing to increase the education budget.