Devon school leaders call for fairer funding
School leaders in Devon have renewed their campaign for fair funding for education today in a letter to Secretary of State for Education Michael Gove.
The letter from Devon County Council’s Cabinet member for schools, Will Mumford, and the chairman of the Devon Association of Primary Heads, Martyn Boxall calls on Mr Gove to speed up the introduction of a fairer national funding system.
Currently Devon schools are sixth from bottom of 152 education authorities for Government funding means every pupil in the county is worth nearly £500 less than the average child nationally.
“We’re finding it increasingly hard to deliver a standard of education when we’re unfairly resourced” says Jo Evans, Head teacher of St Leonard’s primary school in Exeter.
“I’m trying to deliver the same education at £3,500 per pupil when I’d probably be getting £6,000 per pupil in London.”
Devon being a largely rural area faces extra pressure on its schools budget due to bigger transport costs of wider school catchment areas.
Jo Evans said: “We still have to pay a national salary, we still have children with needs but because of our locality, or the rurality of Devon, much of our funding gets spent on transport which it wouldn’t do in London.
“We’re doubly hit because of the transport costs and the low amount of funding that comes in per pupil too.”
“At the moment we’ve had to make choices about whether or not there are additional adults in classrooms,
“Things like a our IT equipment, we’re having now just to think is it going to last? Will it last another year?
“Before we could ensure we had good equipment that was changed probably every two years.”
Some changes to the government’s funding formula have already taken affect meaning that most of Devon’s isolated countryside schools are now better protected financially.
However small schools in densely-populated areas such as St Leonard’s have lost out in the changes.
Jo Evans explained how the changes had affected the Exeter primary, she said: “Because of the changes to the funding formula recently I’ve actually just been told that I’m now £10,000 short on what I was expecting to have and what I’d been budgeting for in the last 11 months.
“I’ve somehow got to find it and I’m not sure how I’m going to.”
Michael Gove has promised to fully introduce the new national funding system after the General Election which promises to: “begin to ensure that most funding is pupil-led and that decisions taken locally are transparent and easily understood”.
But in the letter sent today Devon’s school leaders are saying that change isn’t coming quick enough.
The letter reads: “You have been brave in announcing a national funding system for schools.
“Please ensure that this is introduced as quickly as possible and allow our schools compete with other areas on a fair and equitable basis for the sake of the 90,000 pupils in Devon and their future success.”
The letter’s authors Mr Boxall, who is also head of Montgomery Primary in Exeter, and Mr Mumford also recently attended a campaign meeting in the House of Commons organised by the fair funding group f40 which pressed for urgent action.
