Stories + Views: School Funding

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Henry Stewart: Spending on Schools Works

Today Reform published a report claiming that school spending could be cut by 18% without any effect on standards. A detailed look at their analysis will take some time but their conclusion runs counter to the experience of London schools. The two boroughs with the highest spend-per-pupil in the country were two years ago revealed to be Hackney and Tower Hamlets. ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Back to Bradford: there were concerns about Serco’s management of Education Bradford as early as 2003. Exam results had risen at a faster rate than elsewhere but this was from a lower base. There were complaints about lack ......"

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Janet Downs: DfE releases final capital costs for 18 free schools. What do the figures show?

Final capital costs for 18 free schools have recently been released. Contracts have been signed so the Government says these figures are no longer “commercially sensitive”. So what do the figures show? Free schools which grew from existing schools received little capital funding. Batley Grammar School received just £177,567 for refurbishment. Sandbach Free School, however, received half-a-million for a new building. This ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by The Evening Post - Ed Balls' speech: fact checking the shadow chancellor: "[...] The Local Schools Network would seem to agree with Ed Balls’ point about “excess”. They found that Eden Primary School had just 30 pupils – well below its capacity for 210. They also pointed to Stour Valley Community School ......"

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Janet Downs: £3.5 million extension for secondary free school with only 90 pupils in area with 700 surplus places

St Michael’s Catholic Secondary School, a free school for 11-16 year-olds in Camborne, Cornwall, has just 90 pupils. If it becomes full it will have only 300. Nevertheless, its website says a “3.5 million pound specialist teaching block extension will be completed by November 2013” which will add “the very best teaching facilities to our traditional grammar school buildings.” The school’s opening ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Yes, it was a damning report which revealed a £1billion overspend on the academies programme. And the New Schools Network announced that £1 billion will be allocated to "expanding Education Secretary Michael Gove’s programme of free schools, which are ......"

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Janet Downs: Only two LAs would greatly support a new Free School to meet demand for extra places, NAO found

Many Local Authorities (LAs), particularly in London, face a shortfall in the number of primary school places. Despite this, only 2 out of 122* LAs would support a new free school to a “great extent” to solve this problem, a National Audit Office (NAO) survey found. 50 LAs would support a new free school to “some extent” to provide extra places. ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by sarah: "Not only this but the DfE has told LAs that it should not rely on encouraging free schools to open as a means of meeting demographic demand and that the basic need capital they receive should be used for providing ......"

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Janet Downs: Independent exclusive – claims emerge of bribes to persuade primary schools to convert

Today’s Independent carries a front page exclusive revealing claims that primary schools are receiving financial inducements to persuade them to convert to academy status. The money is over-and-above the £25,000 given to schools to pay for legal and administrative during the conversion process. Academy conversion has been more popular in secondary schools than in primaries - just over half of secondary schools ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Rebecca - those who advocate voucher systems don't seem to realise that vouchers alone aren't enough. The OECD found that if market mechanisms in education are to work (and there's doubt that they do) then there needs to be ......"

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John Mountford: Locally grown education communities for our changing global future.

I spent considerable time looking into Sir Ken Robinson's work on creativity again today. I found fresh material on his blog site and other sources around the net, much of which has a direct link with current ideas about the reform of primary education in England. In one of his presentations about creativity in education, I was struck by some of ... read more and comment →

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Roger Titcombe: Performance Related Pay: the Problem, not the Solution

The favourite remedy of Michael Gove for the alleged failings of our teachers, and consequently our schools, is performance related pay. The argument goes that teachers vary in their ability to get their pupils to pass exams so they should be paid by the exam results of their classes. Only by dangling financial incentives can excellent teachers be properly rewarded ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Ally coops: "There is nothing in draft PRP documentation that indicates how teachers returning from maternity leave will be treated. At present those on the main scale move up automatically on their return from maternity leave. How will it be ......"

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Janet Downs: Academies programme cost £1 billion more than anticipated, says NAO

£1 billion is the estimated additional cost to the Department for Education (DfE) of expanding and operating the Academy Programme, says the National Audit Office (NAO) even though the DfE has reduced the estimated additional cost per open academy (excluding transition costs) by 53% between 2010/11 and 2011/12. The DfE spent £8.3 billion on the Programme from April 2010 to ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Rebecca - my reason for trashing the post was because my argument didn't add up (literally). I was complaining that £8.3 billion had been spent on the Academies Programme overlooking the fact that much of this would have been ......"

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Jess: The future of primary education

Those of you in the primary sector may well be aware that there is now a growing crisis in primary education. There is a need for 500,000 extra primary places to be created by 2015 (90,000 of which will be needed in London by 2014). Gove's solution is free schools and academies instead of democratically accountable Local Authorities that can ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Alan Bowles: "The Autumn statement has provided more money for education so it says. No!. It has provided more money for the building of Academies and Free schools. One version I read added 'and well run' schools which lets in local ......"

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Allan Beavis: Coventry: What happens when a Local Authority is prevented from opening and running new schools

The madness of divorcing local authorities from local schools is once again thrown into sharp relief by this report in The Guardian, which describes how Coventry City Council, having secured funding and land for two new primary schools, is now scrapping the plans after apparently discovering that new schools have to be opened as Academies or Free Schools and ... read more and comment →

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Latest comment by Janet Downs: "Ricky - you are correct about John Major securing the greatest number of popular votes than any other premier before or since. Surprising, then, that he should have received so much poisonous vitriol from the right-wing (Murodch) press. This is ......"

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