All posts tagged: school funding

GAG pooling: DfE considers issuing guidance

GAG pooling: DfE considers issuing guidance

Published by skeptic

Move would give leaders ‘more support’ over how to handle academy cash, says official Move would give leaders ‘more support’ over how to handle academy cash, says official More from this theme Recent articles The Department for Education is considering drawing up GAG pooling guidance following controversies over the amounts trusts take from school budgets. The move would give leaders “more support” over how to handle academy cash, said Lindsey Henning, director of schools financial support and oversight at the Education and Skills Funding Agency. Most MATs top-slice their schools’ general annual grant (GAG) cash to pay for central services. However, growing numbers are opting to pool the money, a method that offers much less transparency, but allows them to distribute funding more evenly across their academies. Accounting expert Will Jordan, of IMP Software, said trusts are “currently having to navigate their thinking around this without any real direction” from government. “[Guidance] would give clarity to the sector… and help demystify this area that many leaders, both trust and school, are grappling with,” he said. …

BRIT School can’t afford to keep lights on for drummers

BRIT School can’t afford to keep lights on for drummers

Published by skeptic

‘Raising funds is what I do as a state head, which is unacceptable’ ‘Raising funds is what I do as a state head, which is unacceptable’ More from this theme Recent articles The prestigious performing arts BRIT School “can’t afford to keep the lights on” before school so pupils – who cannot afford drum kits – can practise, its headteacher has said. Adele The performing and creative arts school for 14- to 19-year-olds in Croydon, south London, boasts the likes of Adele, Amy Winehouse and Rizzle Kicks among its alumni. But, its principal Stuart Worden said he is not immune to “painful decisions” facing other heads because “there is no new money”. Despite recent funding increases from government, pay rises for teachers and support staff – as well as rising costs and pressure to pay for support services such as food banks, counsellors and mental health – are squeezing school budgets. The Institute for Fiscal Studies estimates school funding next year will still be four per cent below 2010 levels in real-terms, when school-specific costs …

Some schools short-changed in grant allocations

Some schools short-changed in grant allocations

Published by skeptic

More from this theme Recent articles Some schools will be short-changed in grant allocations to cover the rise in employer contributions to teachers’ pensions, leaders fear, despite a government pledge to fully fund it. Last year, the government announced employer contributions to the teachers’ pension scheme would rise by more than 20 per cent this April from 23.6 to 28.6 per cent. Ministers said they would cover the rise for state schools with £1.1 billion in additional funding. Full school-level allocations for 2024–25 have not yet been published, but the Department for Education has provided a calculator tool online for schools and trusts to work out what they will receive. The data is based on allocations data, as funding has not yet been issued. The grant is calculated based on funding rates for pupils of different ages, with an extra £65 to £100 for each pupil eligible for free school meals. ‘Another £250k shortfall we have to cover’ Leaders believe it is this weighting on free school meals that is skewing the allocations in favour …

What Has Alcohol’s Existence Done to Humans?

What Has Alcohol’s Existence Done to Humans?

Published by skeptic

Plus: extremism on both the left and the right Tom Stoddart Archive / Getty November 9, 2023, 4:16 PM ET Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here. Question of the Week Are humans better or worse off for having beer, wine, and spirits? Or, if you’d prefer introspection, how about you personally? Send your responses to [email protected] or simply reply to this email. Conversations of Note Markets and the Good The Hedgehog Review is running a thought-provoking symposium about our economic order: Critics of neoliberalism charge that its emphasis on markets over all else progressively gutted vigorous democracy, replacing it with the rule of technocrats … However valid that critique, certain features of neoliberal thinking were, arguably, contributing factors in the three decades—les trentes lorieuses, as the French called them—of widely shared prosperity that followed World War II. But with more fundamentalist neoliberals of the “Chicago school,” championing efficiency …

Where Are All the Missing Students?

Where Are All the Missing Students?

Published by skeptic

In 2006, the School District of Philadelphia, in partnership with Microsoft, opened the School of the Future. The idea was simple enough: Establish a learning environment centered on technology—no textbooks, just laptops and Wi-Fi—that would provide students in relatively poor districts the same benefits that those in wealthier areas enjoyed. The district built a handsome, well-lit building and filled it with state-of-the-art trappings including electronic lockers and Italian-marble bathrooms. It was heralded as a path-defining achievement for public-private partnerships in education. Two years later, Michael Gottfried, now an economist at the University of Pennsylvania but then a graduate student there, was part of a team examining whether such a technological revolution actually made a difference in student achievement. But he soon realized that the technology was somewhat beside the point: “We were talking to a teacher [at the School of the Future] and she said, ‘Here’s the thing, we can talk all you want about smart boards and laptops per student and curriculum moving online, but I have a bigger problem: Half of my class …