There is more money going into schools than there ever has been before

[noblegiraffe]

Video of Damian Hinds on the Andrew Marr show here:

twitter.com/marrshow/status/1000670165246267392?s=21

What is it about the DfE that means they start parroting this shit as soon as they sign up? There are more teachers than ever! It remains an attractive profession! Loads of money in schools!

Damian Hinds, sorry, I gave you a chance, but you’re a tosser.

How much of that "more money" is going in to the failed free schools and academies?

Or on Grammar School expansion?

The point is there is actually a reduction in per-pupil funding. There’s more money as a headline figure because of a) inflation and b) increased pupil numbers.

I did see an analysis yesterday that suggested that a fund that’s set aside for school improvement works is disproportionately going to grammar schools. Can’t remember where though!

Isn't that purely because there are more children in England than ever before?

And also because of inflation, Phil

The point is there is actually a reduction in per-pupil funding. There’s more money as a headline figure because of a) inflation and b) increased pupil numbers.

It used to be easy to find the per-pupil funding for schools, but it's not so easily available. I thought it was because no one wants to deal with the inequalities across the country, but it probably has more to do with the bottom line reduction.

Add to that the fact that in the old days, capital spending came from the council. Need new wiring? Roof leaking? Council will sort that.

Now? That's got to come out of the per pupil budget.

NI and pension contributions have gone up too.

Huge pressure on the budgets. Allcaysed by the government, who peddle the bullsh#* line that schools get more money when it's only half the picture.

And of course, every time the govt put up NI, they conveniently seem to forget that because of schools and NHS, the got is the biggest payer of NI...

According to DfE logic, I (a single woman living alone) must be buying more food than I was 30 years ago when we were a family of 6. They don't understand what inflation means.

They don't understand what inflation means.

They do, they just think that we're too stupid to see beyond their soundbites.

I am not denying that schools need more money, you can claim that about many sectors. However I think its unfair to compare a PMs spending over 10 years with one over 2 years and with no reference to the economic climate it happened in.

If some politicians stopped blindly throwing money at things to win votes then other politicians wouldn't have to cut back to pick up the pieces. How about there was just a constant annual increase of one percent.

Rather than blaming the politicians, how about we the voters take responsibility for refusing to vote for tax rises aka the choices we make.

He is my MP. In his constituency we have great comprehensive schools, if you ask anyone where I live about schools, the first thing anyone says is how lucky we are - they are all good and there is generally choice. Grammar schools aren’t wanted or needed here, if he meddled he would lose votes. I’ve emailed him many a time on education issues and he really doesn’t have a clue. He visited a school I worked at before he came education secretary and his comments were all about how wonderful the schools in his constituency are and now he wants a grammar in every town and therefore ruin it, just shows how out of touch he is with his constituents.

Also he has no real idea on school funding he just parrots the party line. (Which he does on everything....)

I did see an analysis yesterday that suggested that a fund that’s set aside for school improvement works is disproportionately going to grammar schools. Can’t remember where though!

Isn't that just correcting all those years when improvements were disproportional against grammars? Our two grammar schools were in a shocking state a few years ago - one had a whole building shut down due to leaking roof that had rotted floors and walls throughout the building. This at a time the local comps were being splashed with cash on new sports blocks, new theatres, new sixth form centres, etc. Apparently the grammars couldn't "tick the boxes" to get the improvement grants. Sooner or later, the older buildings need to be refurbished, which is now happening at the grammars, but it's not fancy new blocks, it's basic things like new roofs, replacement windows, etc.

Found it!
comprehensivefuture.org.uk/government-using-fund-essential-school-repairs-pay-grammar-school-expansion/

“In 2016 20 grammar schools were awarded funding to construct new buildings, compared to 19 comprehensive schools, while in 2017 8 projects for grammar school classroom expansion compared to 7 in comprehensive schools were given approval. There are 163 grammar schools and more than 3,200 non-selective secondary schools in the country.”

So no, the money isn’t being used to fix leaky roofs, it’s being used to expand grammar schools.

“In 2016 20 grammar schools were awarded funding to construct new buildings, compared to 19 comprehensive schools, while in 2017 8 projects for grammar school classroom expansion compared to 7 in comprehensive schools were given approval. There are 163 grammar schools and more than 3,200 non-selective secondary schools in the country.”

Do you have the figures for earlier years??? Like I said, I think this is just a natural correction after many years of comps being given the funding for improvements/expansion whilst grammars couldn't "tick the boxes" under prior government rules perhaps and left to stagnate? Pointless just quoting figures for only the latest two years. As for our 2 local grammars, it is for "expansion" but that's because the old buildings were literally left to rot and unusable so bringing them back into use may well fall under the "expansion" definition. Depends on how "expansion" is defined - perhaps you could elaborate the definition? Is it pupil numbers? Is it range of subjects offered? Is it number of teachers? It is number of teaching rooms?

Read the article: “Melissa Benn said, “More than 2,200 projects were turned down for funding from the Condition Improvement Fund last year, many with a clear and urgent need for essential repair and refurbishment. Instead, government has handed grammar schools millions to build new science blocks, sports halls, and sixth form centres.Given that there are only 163 grammar schools in the country it makes no sense that more expansion works were approved in grammar schools than in comprehensive schools.’”

Given that we know that a special pot of £50 million has now been earmarked for grammar schools to expand, this explosion in grammar expansion funding since 2016 would appear to be government policy on the sly.

There are more children in schools than ever before. Proportionally there is less money per child than ever before.

Read the article

Yes I did. Nothing in it about prior years which is why I asked. Nothing in it about urgency of repairs/renovations/improvements/expansion. Nothing in it about definitions used. Just yet another biased article that's all fur coat and no knickers. Looking at our 2 grammars, they were really suffering from antiquated buildings that had barely little any renovation for a decade or two. Compare that to every single comp in our area that's had new sixth form centres, new theatres, new sports halls, new science blocks over that same decade or two. As I say, I want to see comparative figures for earlier years. From my own eyes, it's simply a historical correction of lack of investment with funds diverted away from grammars and into comps over the last decade or two. Sooner or later that has to be addressed and it seems that it is now being addressed with some grammars requiring a lot of remedial work now after years of not being able to "tick the boxes" to get funding.

Walkingdeadfangirl
Rather than blaming the politicians, how about we the voters take responsibility for refusing to vote for tax rises aka the choices we make.

There are pots of money that could be reduced and spent on schools and the NHS etc.

pacer and the £50 million that has now been specifically earmarked for grammar expansion? Is that a ‘historical correction’ or politically motivated, do you think?

how about we the voters take responsibility for refusing to vote for tax rises aka the choices we make

Have you been asked to vote specifically for or against tax rises? I haven’t.

The school funding cuts campaign was credited with going some way to losing the Tories the last election and forcing them into a coalition. Something they might do well to remember. If they want to cut funding to schools, then they should at least be honest about it, instead of lying to our faces.

Isn't that just correcting all those years when improvements were disproportional against grammars?

www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/25968

schoolsweek.co.uk/grammar-schools-benefit-from-dfes-largesse/

The link also states this though:
More than 3,800 schools applied to the Condition Improvement fund last year, with 1435 of these projects successfully receiving funding. The vast majority of the projects were for essential work including 608 roofing repairs, 204 window replacements, and 226 projects involving boilers and heating

Read the article: “Melissa Benn said, “More than 2,200 projects were turned down for funding from the Condition Improvement Fund last year, many with a clear and urgent need for essential repair and refurbishment

Is that Melissa Benn, Tony Benn's daughter?

Surely, the applicants of the 2,200 unsuccessful projects just reapplied this year when a further £500 million was available and a further 1,000 plus projects were approved?

How many non-selective secondary schools applied to the expansion fund in 2016? Without that figure, the analysis means nothing.

Well I’d like to have him come here and tell me that then explain how the Head of DS’s school is supposed to run it on over 300k less than a few years ago?

The end result is that DS now can’t do Computer Science as a GCSE as the numbers wanting to were too small to be viable given the funding squeeze. German got chopped slightly before he got there so we knew about that but I’m gutted for him about Computer Science and pressuring school to see if anyway round it.

The amount per head in our county has always been low and to be fair to our Conservative MP who pisses me off no end on most things, he has been trying to get more funding.

Damian Hinds is a disgrace trotting this out. I’ve had children in school for 14 years and it has never been as bad as this. Our local Grammar is apparently cutting the curriculum too.

Clavinova More than 3,800 schools applied to the Condition Improvement fund last year. Unclear how many of those were primary schools.