All Cotswold schools to receive more money under revised National Funding Formula

The cash boost has come as a result of Secretary of State for Education Justine Greening’s plans to increase spending on schools by £1.3billion over the next two years.

Schools will slowly transition into the National Funding Formula from 2018/19. By 2020/21, the formula will come into full effect.

The revised formula will provide a per-pupil cash increase for every school and area and will maintain the budget in real terms per pupil, Ms Greening said. She also announced in September last year that there will be a minimum per pupil funding level.

But headteachers in Cirencester said that there will not be a significant difference, in real terms, to the funding schools receive.

Under the formula last year, 21 schools in the Cotswolds would have received less funding, the biggest losers being secondary and larger primary schools. But under the new formula, all schools’ budgets will be boosted.

The Cotswold Academy and Farmor’s School - which would have lost 2.1 and 2.8 per cent of funding respectively - is set to gain 2.9 per cent (£144,000) of funding in 2018/19.

Meanwhile, Cirencester Deer Park, Kingshill and Sir William Romney’s - which would have lost 1.2, 2 and 1.5 per cent of funding in last year’s plans, will have their funding boosted by 0.9 per cent (£39,000), 0.7 per cent (£28,000) and 0.7 per cent (£14,000) in the next academic year.

Rodmarton School, will have the highest percentage boost in the Cotswolds, 5.9 per cent (£12,000). Several primary schools, including Watermoor and Stratton, will share the lowest percentage boost, 0.4 per cent, with increases between £3,000 and £5,000.

The figures are only for the first year of transition.

Cirencester Deer Park School headteacher Chiquita Henson (pictured below) said: “We welcome the latest version of the National Funding Formula as it is a significant improvement on the previous version and means that schools will not now face reductions in their cash funding.

“However the new formula still does nothing to address the overall shortfall in funding in the national education system. For example, funding at Cirencester Deer Park will increase by 0.5 per cent each year for the next two years. But at the same time we expect wage awards to average 2 to 3 per cent a year and general inflation to average 1 to 2 per cent a year.

“So the increased funding will not keep pace with our increased costs and we will continue to see the funding available to spend on educating pupils reduce in real terms.

“This is an issue that schools have been dealing with for the last few years and we will continue to make every effort to continue to stretch our budgets to cover ever increasing demands on the education system but there will come a point when something has to give.”

A spokesperson for Cirencester Kingshill School likewise said: “Whilst the school is now not worse off as a result of National Funding, in real terms National Funding has not made a significant difference to the level of funding the school will receive.

“National Funding does not address the national funding inequalities and the increasing cost pressures schools face, which will result in continued budget pressures.”

Farmor’s School headteacher Matthew Evans (pictured below) said the new formula would be an improvement: “We are now waiting for final confirmation from the local authority as to what exactly we will receive as they still have responsibility for transferring the money from central government to schools.

“We expect to receive something close to that stated and this will be an improvement on where we would have been if the original formula had been applied.”

Cotswold MP Geoffrey Clifton-Brown (pictured below) announced in his newsletter on December 21: “Under previous proposals, the national funding formula would have resulted in all large primary and secondary schools receiving cash cuts to their budgets.

“This, at a time when schools are already having to economise and reduce staff numbers, is absolutely unacceptable.

“Through my work and a number of meetings with the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Education, I am pleased that every single school in the Cotswolds will now have their budgets protected in real terms, per pupil.

“The Cotswolds’ has a number of truly excellent schools and I fully intend to continue to protect and support our children's’ education in the constituency.”