So.... the beautiful new school building that we were promised

[OrmRenewed]

for DS#1 and DD's school? Are they going to be built or not? The ones that all the pupils had a hand in designing. The one that is going to solve all the problems with leaks and draughts in winter, and sweltering heat in summer, and excessive distances to travel between classes, and horrible old toilets and horrendous heating costs.

Is that now gone for a burton? And how can I find out. Anyone know?

PFI is private finance initiative - part paid for by the private sector so a kind of sponsorship.

I would absolutely accept the lack of money argument if they were also scrapping the free schools scheme but it appears that BSF is being scrapped to give the money to free schools.

Mmeblueberry the only school surviving in my local area happens to be in a Tory seat, so you might be right about schools being offered for votes! As for going to a school that is cold being character building I honestly don't know whether or not to laugh or cry at your Im all right Jack attitude.

I live in Surrey where there are plenty of dire schools, and none have made it to that list.

From what Gove said in Parliament yesterday, he wants to find a better way to do this which is no bad thing, as it is long winded and expensive at present. I read that there should have been 200 schools done under BSF whilst Labour were in power, and only 35 have been done. Not good enough.

If he can come up with funding, or a better and quicker way of sorting out the problems, and things go on hold until that is achieved, then I don't see the point of continuing with the programme in it's current incarnation.

The BSF money is NOT going to the free schools. The relatively small amount of funding for those is coming from elsewhere in the education budget.

I don't see what difference that makes though. If there is money available to give to anything, it should go to refurbish schools in dire need of it.

But as I said earlier, as long as the teachers and the head stay where they are, I'll be happy. It's just a shame.

I don't see it as an issue - the good things we had weren't real. They were all in Labours imagination.

Think about how education has improved - TAs in classes, smaller class sizes (I had 40 in my Maths class!), after school clubs. And more. Teachers having more training time and less contact time (we also need to reduce constant assessment - make it a termly test). What is interesting is that children leaving aren't actually any better educated - something maybe we can learn from?

'bastard conservatives. I am already disgusted by their governing...another 5 fucking years of this.... '

We were told over 12 months ago, even as the planning was going on, that there was no way it would happen as the Government had no funding in place nor any feasible way of getting it. So that will be the previous Government that planned beyond their means then and promised things they could never deliver....

So sad that peopple can't see what has been on the cards for so long, prefering to blme those left to sort out the mess.

Looks like they stuffed up - even more to be scrapped!

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/10538754.stm

I can't see a new list yet though.

The Guardian have the updated list.

My local council (which is Liberal Dem/Conservative) is very confident that although the Labour 'Building for Schools' scheme has been cancelled, they are confident of getting their new Secondary School from 'alternative streams of funding'.

The cancellation of the scheme means that the government can make all sorts of claims about Labour overspending, spend money on setting up a new scheme and then do their own thing - presumably divert money from the BFS scheme to Free Schools.

This is a real blow to us.

DS's school, as well as being in a wretched condition, is also unfit for purpose, due to the cast increase in pupil numbers.

The staircases during change over are a crush and accidents happen regularly.

The y7 area of the playfields are on a very steep slope. Boys being what they are, a kamikaze rugby type game has developed involving boys climbing to the top of the hill and being thrown off. It keeps being banned, only to resurface, because there is not much else to do except stay still.

The Y9s get to stand on the school drive way during their lunch and break times.

The toilets are nothing less than disgusting.

Lunch takes forever because the canteen is tiny compared to the numbers.

The asbestos and heating problems are the least of our worries.

This is not just about children and teachers having nice walls to look at. Some of these buildings are unsafe.

I genuinely thought our school would be one of those that would be saved. But we live in a Lib/Labour area. Not a chance.

Our MP (Liddel Grainger) was on Today talking about taking the pupils and teachers from the town up to London to protest about the cutbacks. And he's a Tory

Agree with OrmRenewed.

Free schools weren't in the school budgets before May 2010. Either there is more public money available to pay for them or money is no longer being spent on something else and is now being spent on Free Schools. If this money isn't coming from cuts in BFS, then something else is being cut.

I went to a meeting about 3 weeks before the election where we were told that we would definitely get a new school because education spending was 'ring fenced'.

I gather that the Coalition have now decided to rebrand rather than ring fence this spending, using the opportunity to redirect money as they see fit. Hope they don't spend too much money on the new logos and headed paper.

Merrymouse - Let me say again, the money from BSF is NOT earmarked for the Free Schools. The relatively small amount of funding for those is coming from elsewhere within the education budget.

The other thing worth noting is that Michael Gove has said he is cancelling the approach taken by BSF as it was expensive, long winded and inefficient. He is not cancelling all new schools building.

The fact that his officials couldn't manage to provide him with a list of all schools under BSF saying which ones were approved and which were not certainly suggests there were problems. From Gove's statement in the Commons yesterday he seems to think that cancelling BSF will allow them to build more state schools with less money. It may therefore be that many of these "cancelled" project will end up going ahead.

Prh47bridge, I don't really care which bit of the education budget has been cut to spend money on free schools - if you spend something on one thing, you can't spend it on another - and presumably the thing you are cutting spending on is not champagne in the staff room at break time.

As I said in my first post, my local liberal/conservative council has said that they are pretty sure that the new secondary school will go ahead. However, this will now be after further consultation, and paper shuffling and more delay and money spent.

I suspect the money 'saved' from the nasty old labour plan will be used to fund the lovely shiny new conservative plan, and the lovely folders and websites that will be designed to support it. I wouldn't expect anything less at the start of a new government. I don't doubt that Gove thinks his new scheme will be better than the old scheme and cost less money. That is the nature of politicians.

Our local comp hasn't had much money spent on it for a long time. DD went in 5 yrs ago and I was shocked at the state of the place compared to when I was there in the 70's. It since had a lick of paint so was improving and they have a lovely new extention planned for a dining area. Pleased to see it's not mentioned on the list as I think it's well on it's way to being finished.

It's scandalous what they are doing re our schools.

Given what I've seen in BSF I'm sure it is possible to do something that will provide much better value for money. Whether Gove can do it or not remains to be seen.

I think the champagne at break time has been cut already! More seriously, as I understand it the funding for free schools (£50M initially) is coming from money that was previously used to help schools choose the right computer equipment. I'm not sure how much "help" the average school felt it received in this area.

Maybe they shouldn't have wasted so much money getting rid of middle schools near here.
All the primary schools have needed new classroom extensions and the upper schools all need several new classrooms. why can't they leave things alone they were working fine and despite all their reassurances it is affecting the children as teachers are leaving.

I am really hoping all this doesn't affect DD's new primary school which the area has been waiting for for years, It is supposed to merge the 2 current primaries, one of which has had scaffodling and netting around it for years due to bits 'dropping off' and the other is such an old victorain building they can't make it DDA compliant, and also has bits dropping off it..

As far as I understand it, if you are a Conservative you say the Free Schools funding comes from no longer providing IT advice to schools, if you are Labour you say the money comes from cutting free school meals. It all depends on which way you want to spin the story.

As a member of the public, what I see is that the Coalition have cut both, and want to spend money on Free Schools and, among other things, a review of capital spending (i.e. suspending BSF and calling it something else). The coalition have decided that Free Schools are more important than both IT advice and free school meals. That is their right as the government in power (albeit by the skin of their teeth).

However, all this justification of spending or lack of it because it does or doesn't come from this budget or that budget is a load of rubbish. It is just money.

To a large extent I agree with you. Saying it is from free school meals gives the opposition an attack line, saying it is from the IT budget gives the government a defence.

However, just to be pedantic, the government isn't cutting free school meals, although I know some people are representing it that way. It has scrapped Labour's plans to extend free school meals to 500,000 additional children. Anyone who gets free school meals now will continue to get them.

Pedant mode off...

Hold on to your school caps. This is just the start.
Funding for school sports, music etc will be next. Then revenue funding. Then
the strikes when teachers have to pay more into their pensions.

Just been to the induction evening for DD who is starting at the school in Sept. Beautiful scale model of the new school, everything that it needs, fantastic design. And on the way out saw the rusting 1950 metal window frames and peeling wall panels Developers have already spent 4mill.

Well thank the bloody Labours twats for spending all the money and leaving the Tories to pick up the pieces and carry the blame forever.......