school funding | Schools Week

£30k starting salary pledge remains, and 5 other things we learned from the spending review

The chancellor Rishi Sunak has launched his spending review, which sets out how public services will be funded in the 2021-22 financial year. Most notably for schools, the spending review includes a pay freeze for public sector workers earning over the median salary. Here’s what we learned. 1. £30k starting salaries still the plan, […]

Schools miss out as £2.2m cut from overhauled support scheme

The government has cut funding promised to schools for improvement support after the scheme was repurposed to help leaders struggling with educational issues or remote learning during the pandemic. Under a new recovery scheme, schools can request an “experienced system leader” for up to five days to “help them overcome the challenges faced or exacerbated” […]

Schools wait for £50m in Covid costs

The government is yet to pay out a third of the cash requested to deal with the costs associated with keeping schools safe during the coronavirus pandemic, despite already settling 95 per cent of claims. Almost £50 million claimed by schools has still not been paid out of the exceptional costs fund. The criteria for […]

School budgets ‘on a knife edge’ due to soaring supply staff costs

Schools are “on a knife edge” as the mounting costs of supply staff parachuted in to replace isolating teachers could leave them out of cash “by Christmas”. A survey from the NAHT school leaders’ union, based on more than 2,000 responses, has found schools are spending on average £2,454 more on supply staff than they […]

Schools take £900m Covid hit, but few get cash help

New figures show that the cost of Covid safety measures for schools across England has soared to almost £400 million. And in a “double whammy” on school budgets, missed income opportunities following the pandemic have now surpassed £500 million. Schools need the government to make good these unanticipated but necessary costs in order to protect […]

Pay rise costs take sheen off extra funding

School funding will still be six per cent lower than it was in 2010 after cash swallowed up by rising salaries is taken into account, a new study has found. The government has promised to pump an extra £7.1 billion into the schools budget by 2023, which the Institute for Fiscal Studies has said “near […]

Four things we learned from the EPI’s analysis of 2021-22 school funding allocations

Efforts to “level-up” school funding in England will benefit better-off pupils more than their poorer peers, according to new analysis by the Education Policy Institute. The think tank has published analysis of school funding allocations for 2021-22. The government is now in its third year of allocating funding to councils based on its new national […]

Minimum secondary school per-pupil funding to rise to £5,150

Secondary schools will receive at least £5,150 for each pupil from 2021, the government has announced. Ministers have set out the minimum funding levels for schools that will apply under the second year of their three-year funding settlement. Schools in inner London are set for the lowest increase (2.3 per cent), while schools in the […]

DfE paid £490k to rebroker three failing Steiner schools

The government paid out almost half a million pounds in grant funding to rebroker three failing Steiner schools, new data shows. Steiner free schools in Bristol, Exeter and Frome were moved to the Avanti Schools Trust last year after all three were placed into special measures by Ofsted. The schools are now called Avanti Gardens […]