Budget 2016 - watch it live here, 12.30pm!

[KateMumsnet]

Chancellor George Osborne will introduce his eighth budget at lunchtime today - he's expected to announce fresh spending cuts of £4bn, as well as a radical shakeup for schools in England, with every school becoming an academy by 2020, effectively ending local authority control. He'll also announce new funds to finance a longer day for secondary schools, with heads able to bid for funds for additional school activities and overtime pay.

Join us here to watch live at 12.30pm - and do let us know what you think of his announcements here on the thread.

Military training, sorry not Army, but just as bad.
It was part of that Commando Joe trial that was supposed to have go nationwide and be for secondary too.
I read on a gov paper online. Maybe they dumped it.
The paper was published 2011 and said that by 2017? or 18, unsure of which that it would be rolled out.
Maybe they dumped it, but it would explain the extra hour of extra curricular, that doesn't seem to be optional.

Garlicshakes is talking utter utter rubbish and trying to scare people with that rubbish about army stuff. Just ignore

It was me that mentioned it, not Garlic who responded.
I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't tbh.
How long have they been trying to get military personnel into schools, they were going to teach at one time.
Maybe they won't, I'm just saying it wouldn't surprise me.

EmbroideryQueen I doubt it. Both schools back onto houses/gardens. I am surprised that they even got planning permission but only did as the houses are higher than the schools so overlook the school rather than vice versa. We have yard and stable lights so are lucky in that sense I suppose.

When I was younger it didn't bother me but now I have dcs I am more safety aware. It can be a dangerous pastime without taking extra risks. And we could switch to riding lessons elsewhere but affordability is an issue as is the quality of the teaching. They aren't posh where we go but it's a good riding school with a very good family of instructors and it's affordable too. You pay a lot more and get a lot less imo at the posher yards with better facilities.

But my problems are petty compared to what some will face. And am pretty sure that the ponies will be pleased if nothing else.

I think the academy agenda is more worrying than the end times - those are pretty easy to reverse but once local authorities aren't supporting schools, and schools are not accountable to any democratically selected bodies but instead to business managers and private organisations, it will be very hard to reverse.

Tories have an ideology that private organisations are most efficient - but as far as we can tell this just isn't the case for academies; they just aren't better. Just less accountable. What makes excellent schools is to pay teachers very well, thus attracting many talented people into teaching, and to support teachers well to do their jobs once they get there! But it turns out that costs money. It would save money in the long run, of course, what with having a highly educated population in this global economy of knowledge blah blah blah - but that wouldn't happen in the 4-year time frame of any government. And it's way easier to assume that there is something magic about giving public money to private organisations, especially if that's your ideology to begin with.

Sign the petition everyone:
petition.parliament.uk/petitions/124702

afussyphaseMao so the do the best state schools at the moment pay their teachers better than other school?

Secondary school gov here, had a mtg tonight. Our take on it is that only the lowest performing 25% of schools are being asked to extend their school day (ironic, as we are a non-selective in a grammar area, and most nights there are activities going on til 7 or 8 pm, providing the extra-curricular activities people want...). There is no extra funding available to cover the extended hours at school, most of which are provided FOC or at very low cost by our wonderful staff. I am totally against any compulsory extension of the school day, as we are a rural area: many kids go home to their family farms/ponies etc; many play in matches; 80% of our kids come by bus, so therefore a complete reorganisation of transport would be rquired etc etc etc. We became an academy of our own free will (jump before you are pushed) and will look at becoming a MAT or co-operative trust in the very near future to enable other local schools to retain their independence from the academy chains. Waiting to see what Nicky Morgan has to say tomorrow... and that is quite apart from the whole 'let's change the GCSE specs but not tell teachers what they need to teach' fiasco.

I don't have a huge problem with a longer school day but I don't think it should be compulsory. My dc would not be able to continue doing the activities they do already if everything was pushed forward an hour. They don't get back until half eight/nine as it is on some nights.
My main concern is that many schools don't currently have the resources to provide for the length of the day they have already, let alone adding another hour on.

I don't really have a problem with dc staying until 4pm. We used to and to be honest although we started later by the time I factored in the bus it was no different to what time the dc leave.

My dcs school run activities or homework club every night.

The issue i have is with it being compulsary is attend science club. Will they still enjoy science club if it is filled with a load of kids that have to but don't want to be there and are therefore disruptive?

They do homework club some nights because they get a chance to use the library when it is quieter so less chance of sensory overload as they cannot cope at lunch.

I also have issues with compulsary after school session in a sport they hate (all of them due to SN and bottom set pe) missing they mean important after school sessions they enjoy.

Most sessions they do start at a time they wouldn't need to adjust however for those kids who travel to get there it would become a problem. Dc police cadets start at 4pm 45 minutes journey from their school. Squad training starts at 6pm so we could get there but by the time they got home from school at nearly five then out on the bus to there they wouldn't have time to eat and we don't get back until late so literally shower and bed.

I would fight tooth and nail and move country to avoid compulsary military. I have a military family background and am proud of them but my dc already learn team work, volunteer work, fitness bleep tests and community work through cadets. I'm not interested in putting them in an environment where they will be shouted at and ridiculed for being too slow mentally and physically due to sen.
Neither do i want our Government to have a country of basic military trained working class cannon fodder at hand.

Sorry tired ramblings! That should say my dc attend science club.

Omg half of it doesn't make sense. I have just woke up sorry. Hope you get the gist of what I meant

Where we live ds secondary school timetable is 8.45 a.m. to 2.45. There are some school club activities which he may join if he wishes but realistically he won't wish to go to more than two weekly. These are free and run from 3 pm to 4 p.m. eg. chesss/football etc. There is also a homework club 3 to 4 pm every day apparently but I really can't see my boy wishing to go every day ....

To introduce more activities would be most welcome and help my working day. There is NOTHING else in the neighbourhood whereas demographically other people have up to four choices of childcare in their area.

Dc are both SEN, if the extended hours at secondary end up compulsory I see trouble ahead they struggle with more than half a day at a primary academy, I had better get use to a stiff whiskey each evening. Really not looking forward to this.

I don't quite understand what it means if all schools are academies and are no longer controlled by the local authority?. Actually scratch that last question a local academy close by where we live are in a league of their own I have heard through the grapevine there have already been a few complaints about removal of SEN provision for those not seen as 'needy' enough when it is blatantly obvious that that was what helped them get to the levels they were at.

Love how in the white paper it says extending the school day will make more time for sports and debating.

I don't understand. Have teachers just had their working weeks extended by 5 hours?

Teachers don't only work "school" hours so I don't think this will impact them? I think the costs would be more in facilities management but not sure how much impact there would even be from this as all our local schools are already used after hours?

Those extra hours are spent planning lessons and marking, howabout. They are, presumably, now going to have to spend an extra hour supervising the kids and lesson plan for those extra hours too.

That said I'm very surprisd to hear that 2dry schools are now finishing before 3 even. As others said, it used to be 4 pretty much everywhere. That'll be the teacher retention crisis I imagine, and the extra workload. Where are the extra staff schools will need coming from, not to mention all this extra funding?

Bungo dd's high school finishes at 2.30, however they start at 8.30 have one 15min break and 30min for lunch.

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