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.

I doubt that Grammar schools were underfunded because they are grammars. In non grammar areas, the funding tends to be concentrated on under performing schools. Therefore grammars are probably getting the same level of funding as other good schools.

If anything ringfencing money for grammar schools unfairly disadvantages good schools in non grammar areas - they don't have access to this money and they find in hard to complete for money with the underperforming schools in their area.

I find it interesting that Wokingham, one of the most expensive areas to live in outside of London, has some of the best performing schools and yet is one of the poorest funded councils. Why? How do they manage it? Do the parents pay extra to the schools?

Yes they've certainly managed to switch the statistics to meet their cause.

More funding in actual figures is not more funding per pupil!

More teachers in schools is not more teachers per pupil.

Nice try Damian

Ah so its Tony Benn's daughter who wrote that article. That explains the lies, damned lies and statistics.

There are pots of money that could be reduced and spent on schools and the NHS etc. If that were true then why did no party at the last election tell us about them? The only extra money any one was able to find was from tax rises or borrowing.

Have you been asked to vote specifically for or against tax rises? I haven’t. I have been specifically polled and canvased for my views on tax rises. And at every local and national election I am able to specifically vote for candidates that either support tax rises or dont. At the moment most people choose not to support tax rises, unless they wont be affected of course .

Ah so its Tony Benn's daughter who wrote that article. That explains the lies, damned lies and statistics.

This is the oddest comment yet. The figures came from a Freedom of Information request. If you have issues with the figures that 21% of grammar schools have expanded with money from the fund since 2015, and only 2% of non-selective schools, I don’t think that’s Melissa Benn’s fault, you’ll need to take it up with the DfE.

I am able to specifically vote for candidates that either support tax rises or dont.

Stupid comment. People only get to vote for a best-fit candidate to their views. If a candidate stands who supports tax rises but also the death penalty (or whatever), then an absence of votes for that candidate is not necessarily an indicator that the voter wouldn’t support tax rises.

And besides, what’s this ‘we voted for’ about? No one won the last election, and I’m pretty sure what we got (a coalition of Tories and DUP) wasn’t what many people would have voted for.

I don't call new science blocks or sports halls expanding,its simply updating. Without seeing the before and after for every school you can't really make assumptions. If such schools for whatever reason had less money before then I can see why they'd be more likely to get money with this fund,their facilities are going to be in more need of updating.

The main reason that grammar schools get less funding than other schools is because they don’t have many poor kids and thus don’t get much pupil premium funding. This wouldn’t be used for building works anyway.

Maybe they were in areas that were previously underfunded or more likely to be in older buildings. Maybe extra money had been pumped into local non selective schools first. Without a break down of every case you can't really make assumptions.

I still don't think new science blocks and sports halls can be called expanding.

And yet £50million has now been specifically earmarked for grammar expansion by the same party.

Clavinova More than 3,800 schools applied to the Condition Improvement fund last year

No, how many non-selective secondary schools applied to the expansion fund? Assuming that the 608 schools granted money for roofing repairs, the 204 schools granted money for window replacements and the 226 schools granted money for boilers and heating were not also applying for expansion.

The figures came from a Freedom of Information request

What figures did Comprehensive Future obtain via a Freedom of Information request that they couldn't research on the government website below (accessed from the Comprehensive Future link you posted)?
www.gov.uk/guidance/condition-improvement-fund

CIF also supports a small proportion of expansion projects. These are for Ofsted-rated good or outstanding academies and sixth-form colleges that need to expand their existing facilities and/or floor space

So, how many non-selective secondary schools applied for expansion under this criteria?

Melissa Benn is the Chair of Comprehensive Future - a campaign group specifically set up to stop the expansion of grammar schools.

I’m aware that I linked to the Comprehensive Future website. What surprises me is that people picked up on Melissa Benn’s father even before they picked up on that.
Exceptionally weird, unless you’d rather play the man than the ball.

If you suspect that more grammars were applying for expansion than non-selective schools, then that would raise the question as to why, when hundreds of thousands of more places are needed across the country. Do you think they’d been given the nod?

No, that's incorrect - I recognised Comprehensive Future immediately but I picked up on Melissa Benn's father before I discovered she was their Chair - I assumed Melissa Benn was just another left-wing Guardian journalist.

I find it very disappointing that a woman would be judged on the basis of her father rather than simply taken on her own merits.

If you suspect that more grammars were applying for expansion than non-selective schools, then that would raise the question as to why, when hundreds of thousands of more places are needed across the country. Do you think they’d been given the nod?

Well, considering that only 8 selective schools and 7 non-selective schools were granted money for expansion in 2017-2018 (from this particular fund - stats from Comprehensive Future) - they are going to be short of a few hundred thousand school places! I assume that the majority of the money needed is coming from elsewhere?

Government is sticking its head in the sand, Clavinova
www.tes.com/news/need-know-todays-school-funding-announcement Funding for 40,000 new school places by 2021, except 600,000 more are needed. They’d better get a shift on.

This is the DfE all over. What a bloody shambles.

They’ll find a way to blame teachers for it all. Or immigrants. Or the EU.

It’s just a blame game on repeat.

Perhaps Comprehensive Future are 'playing the man, not the ball' - quibbling over money allocated to grammar schools when so many extra secondary school places are needed?

This is the oddest comment yet. I am sure you know exactly how statistics are manipulated, whilst still being 'true'. If you are trying to make a point about school under-funding then there is plenty of evidence for that. Expanding a few grammar schools is not that evidence.

People only get to vote for a best-fit candidate to their views And I guess politicians advocating tax rises didn't fit enough peoples views. Hence there wasn't a majority of tax rising politicians voted in.

And now that you’re here, would you care to defend Damian Hinds’ lies on the Andrew Marr show?

The grammar school thing wasn’t the point of the thread, just something I remembered reading the other day. And yet it’s all people want to talk about for some reason.

I have never tried to 'defend' Damian Hinds, I think he is stuck between a rock and a hard place. I see him as representing the country's collective delusion that we can have a world class school system on the cheap. I dont see ANY other politician offering anything better. We have to accept we cant currently afford more.

People do want to talk about the grammar 'thing' because a lot of people believe it is a good thing. Its human nature, not all people are equal.

The funding issue has been rumbling for a long time, what it boils down to is that the DFES have no idea how much it actually costs to run a school and even the National Audit Office has said that the DFES have no clue about how to help schools make savings. There is plenty of in-party fighting going on, Hampshire County Council’s leader has been very vocal about funding cuts. Due to academies and free school programme LEAs can’t open new schools themselves, it all has to go out to bids and thus costing more money. The whole thing is a shambles and set to continue.

olavesunofficialnews.wordpress.com/2018/01/25/voluntary-fund-bombshell-school-has-over-1-4m-in-the-bank-unspent/

That’s one school.

I hate this quibbling. Having sat through meeting where our head outlined how many teachers wouldn’t be replaced and how many TA positions would go, I think it is wild that some people seem to think this is a figment of our imagination.

I can tell you now that I haven’t had any CPD in four years because my school can’t afford it. I think won’t be the only teacher who has gone without training because there is no cash.

I can also tell you that in my school we have lost at least one member of staff from each department and at least seven teaching assistants.

What impact do you think that is going to have on the education of children?