New figures published today will show how the extra £14 billion for schools and high needs over three years will be divided up, which was promised by the Prime Minister in August.
Schools and local authorities will find out today how the Government is allocating the first part of the investment - £2.6 billion - for the coming year. The funding will be available from April 2020.
Education secretary Gavin Williamson said that the biggest increases will go to the schools that ‘need it most’.
Secondary schools are also to receive more money under the National Funding Formula, a minimum of £5,000 per pupil from next year.
The funding includes £780 million in 2020-21 to help children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) to reach their potential.
Primary schools in England are to receive a minimum of £4,000 per pupil in future, but this will only come into force from 2021 to 2022.
However, teaching unions have criticised the amount of money available, saying that it is not enough to replace historic underfunding or to keep up with inflation.
Reports also suggest that there will be large regional variances in how much funding schools receive, with schools in London set to receive an increase of 3.2 per cent per pupil, while schools in the East and West Midlands will receive 5 per cent per pupil.
Comments
Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the National Education Union (NEU), said, ‘The Government continues to try to pull the wool over the public’s eyes about the reality of school funding.
‘The money is not enough to address historic underfunding. Even though the Government identified many local authorities as suffering from significant underfunding in 2015, 147 out of 150 local authorities will have even less money in April 2020 than they did in 2015.’
The Association of Schools and Colleges (ASCL) said the increased investment does ‘not go far enough’ and argued that the additional spending doesn’t reach schools until next year.
Workload Survey
The Department for Education (DfE) has also released findings from its second Teacher Workload Survey today, which reveal that teachers’ working hours have reduced by five hours a week in the past three years.
According to the survey, the reduction in working hours is due to a reduction in the time spent on marking, planning and non-teaching tasks.
More than 7,000 teachers, middle leaders and senior leaders took part in the survey.
Teachers and middle leaders in primary schools reported working an average of 12.5 hours during weekends and evenings, down by five hours compared to 2016.
Mr Williamson said, ‘For too long, teachers have been working too many hours on time-consuming admin tasks that simply don’t add value in the classroom.
‘But the findings in today’s report give me real optimism that, working with the profession, we are making a real difference, driving down the number of hours teachers work on these burdensome and unnecessary tasks.
'However, I am not complacent, and it’s clear from meeting many teachers across the country that we have more to do.’
Commenting on the findings, the ASCL agreed that more needs to be done to reduce teachers’ workload.
General secretary Geoff Barton said, ‘Teachers are still working about 50 hours a week, and senior leaders 55 hours a week. Such high levels of workload leave individuals feeling burnt out, demoralised and inclined to quit.
‘The result is that we are losing far too many teachers from the profession with around one third leaving within five years of qualifying. This is a major factor in the teacher shortages being experienced in schools around the country.’
