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9 in 10 schools across England have had to suffer from cuts since 2015! This can't be acceptable.

What is school funding? How is it created?

For those who are unsure of what school funding is or how it is created this is a brief overview.  (Individuals for these positions do change, this is for 2020.)

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Boris Johnson the Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Gavin Williams the Secretary of State for Education come together to discuss and decide the overall national school budget each year.  The local school forum then allocates a set budget amongst all the schools based on certain criteria.

 

There are different funds created for Sixth Formers, children with special educational needs, children in the early years and the pupil premium. These groups receive different funding because they require specific resources and teachers that have qualifications to meet their needs. 

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Pupil Premium;

This is a grant given by the government to schools in England to decrease the attainment gap for the most disadvantaged children, whether by income or by family upheaval.

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The Governments pupil premium conditions of a grant from 2019 to 2020, include;

- £1,320 per pupil for each Ever 6 FSM FTE pupil aged 4 and over in the year groups from reception to year 6, except where the pupil is allocated the LAC or post- LAC premium.

- £935 per pupil for each Ever 6 FSM FTE pupil in the year groups 7 to 11, except where the pupil is allocated the LAC or post-LAC premium. 

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Schools are having to use their pupil premium to help fill in the gaps that have occurred because of the lack of sufficient funding. 

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Definitions;

Ever 6 FSM FTE pupil- considered to be disadvantaged pupils who are eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years.

FTE- Full-time equivalency

THE HARD TRUTH

'83% of schools will lose out this year compared to 2015'

'Schools across England will be £2bn poorer in 2020 than back in 2015'

'16,523 schools will receive budget shortfalls in their  funding of April 2020.'

Schools across England are struggling to give the best education they can because of the constant shortfalls they receive.  

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Despite the last THREE prime ministers promising to protect and level up funding this has not occurred sufficiently.

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The majority of schools are on the verge of breaking point and some are already there. This should not be happening, a school is a place for any pupil to show their potential and take part in the lessons they love and learn new skills.

 

However, due to these budget shortfalls, schools across England are having to remove subjects because they are unable to run them efficiently.  Art and design, Music, Languages and other creative lessons are the first subjects to be cut. To take away the opportunity for students to enjoy and excel in these areas is unfair. These lessons not only help a student express themselves, it is proven that mental health can be improved through creativity. The governments' cuts are preventing students to explore these areas and are changing their future, not always for the better.  For example,  a student could have the potential to achieve high grades and succeed in Languages but due to the cuts, they are unable to explore this subject and are unlikely to find this talent and develop it.

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Impact of the budget Shortfalls on our schools 

These shortfalls are having huge impacts on children up and down the country and are affecting the way these schools are run. This is through classroom sizes, subjects, resources and teachers.

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Classroom sizes;

Englands classroom sizes both in Primary and Secondary schools are one of the biggest in the modern world. The class sizes across Primary and secondary schools are rising at their fastest ever rate. 

Primary schools have had the largest classrooms since 2000 and secondary schools also have had the largest classrooms since 1981. These classes are being taught with over 30 pupils in them at a time. This needs to change because pupils are getting less individual help from the teacher, meaning they are struggling more with the work. 

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There are more pupils in 2020 than in 2015 and this rate is constantly growing. Yet the number of teachers is decreasing and this is because they are not being hired or helped enough because many schools can not afford, Which then goes back to classroom sizes being large because there are not enough teachers in schools. 

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Resources and teachers; 

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In the majority of schools, they are facing problems with getting the resources to provide to their students. A lot of teachers are having to use money from their pocket to buy the resources for their pupils. This is unfair for these teachers because they are not paid a lot and have faced cuts to their pay.  The department of education has admitted that teachers are over £4000 a year worse in real terms since 2010. Majority of teachers are facing real-term cuts in pay and this should not be happening. They work extremely hard to provide children in England with the best education they can give, even if the government are constantly cutting their funding. Teachers are facing cuts of up to 10% on their pay.  These children are our future and we need to give them the education they deserve. This is not occurring to best could because teachers are dropping more from the profession than joining as they are struggling to work with their pay and funding. Which then links back to the classroom sizes constantly increasing as there are not enough teachers to spilt the students across.

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Schools are being left no option than to ask parents for money for classroom resources as funding cuts continue to occur. As well as this they are having to raise money for their own schools as mentioned before the government is not helping them enough. One headteacher is planning a skydive to raise funds for their pupils. Showing that these teachers are going to extreme lengths to raise some money to help their school run. 

The Sutton Trust has reported that two-thirds of secondary schools have had to take the hard decision of cutting down teaching staff. It is stated that 60% of secondary schools have had cuts in IT equipment, along with 40% having to cut down on school outings.

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Primary schools who teach the most deprived intakes will suffer the average cut of £382 per pupil each year. Whereas in Primary schools who teach the least deprived intakes will receive an average of £125 per pupil each year.

This is the same with secondary schools.

Secondary schools who teach the most deprived intakes will suffer an average cut of £509 per pupil each year. Whereas Secondary schools who teach the least deprived intakes will receive an average cut of £117 per pupil each year.  

This is having huge impacts on schools across England because as mentioned above they are causing schools to be on the verge of breaking point if they aren't there already. Pupils education is being ruined because the government is constantly bringing in cuts on them. They want these pupils to succeed and prosper yet are not increasing or protecting their funding efficiently which is then ruining their education. Not only that schools who are struggling the most are receiving a harsh loss in their funding, which causes them to become even more deprived.

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What have our past and prime ministers promised us

Since 2015 every Prime Minister has claimed to be protecting and putting more money into schools.  However, nearly all schools across England are worse off nowadays, than back in 2015. 

What did they promise? 

Well...

In 2015, during the election, David Cameron promised that his government would continue to protect the school funding. This did not happen because cuts still occurred while he was Prime Minister. 

In 2017, again during an election, Theresa May promised to spend £4 billion more on school funding.  Even though this sounds like a lot it wouldn't have been enough, and cuts were again still occurring causing schools not to progress.

 

Finally, during the most recent election in 2019, Boris Johnson promised to level up funding so there is no more "winners or losers".  However, in three years time schools will still be trying to come out of a £1.3bn funding shortfall. The numbers of pupils are increasing at a high rate meaning by the time it reaches 2022/23 we will have the biggest generation. 

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The government have stated that schools across England have received more funding than ever seen before.  This may be correct in how much money there is in the school budget. However, due to inflation and the increasing number of pupils, it means the per-pupil funding has been falling since 2015 and the budget is being stretched even further.

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Between 2010 and 2015, spending per pupil had stayed roughly the same, according to the economists at the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS).

The funding predicted to fall from 2015 up to 2019/20, but in 2017 the government announced an additional £1.3 billion for the schools budget between 2017/18 and 2019/20.  But this did not mean that school funding was now at a high, in the insight it 

 means that school spending per pupil will still be less than it was in 2015/16, but instead of continuing to fall between 2017/18 and 2019/20 it will stay roughly the same, according to IFS

 

We need to regularly increase the funding more to match the rising school costs and the number of pupils. These factors are increasing but the funding is not. 

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ASCL has warned that the school funding boost will be swallowed up by the government promises along with the constant rise of costs. 

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They have stated that their calculation of Boris Johnson's plan shows that only 300 million pounds will be left over to reverse the school's cuts that have constantly added up since 2015. ASCL estimates that this is at least 1.1 billion pounds short of what is crucially needed. Divided between around 21000 state-funded schools in England, the 300 million pounds equates to about £14,000 per school. This is less than one-third of the cost of a teacher. 

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The funding rate for 16 and 17-year-old  students have been stuck at £4000 per student per year since 2013. Causing tons of financial pressures in this important phase of education. The government has announced an increased of £4,188 per student in 2020/21. ASCL is calling for the funding rate to be raised to at least £4,760 per student so it is annually in line with inflation.  

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ASCL submission also calls for more money for high provision, which supports young people with special educational needs and disabilities. The government has committed an extra 78 million pound in 2020/21 but ASCL says this is not enough to address a 1.2 billion pound deficit in 2021. 

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Raise School Funding strongly supports ASCL motions for the government because as mentioned many of times through this website, these children are our future in which they deserve the best education given. 

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