Education News

Pupils from Saint Paul’s Catholic High School in Wythenshawe recently enjoyed a visit to Disneyland Paris where they focused on how GCSE Maths can be applicable to the planning, design and running of the theme park.

The Gifted and Talented pupils from years 8 and 9 attended three Maths seminars, led by the company Study Experiences. In one of the seminars, they had to apply their mathematical skills to the design of roller coasters; looked at speed, time and distance; determining velocity, load and forces and calculating minimum downtimes. Another seminar’s aim was to explore shapes, space and measurement, the pupils had to calculate the materials needed for a parade, plan routes, examine timings and look at the costings which would be involved.

In addition to the Disneyland experience, the pupils also got the opportunity to visit central Paris where they spent time at the Eiffel Tower and the Louvre.

“The pupils had great fun, saw some wonderful sights and, at the same time, were able to develop their knowledge and understanding of Maths,” commented Ms Kelly Wass, Maths teacher who accompanied the pupils. “Experiences such as this highlight the importance of Maths in today’s world and bring the subject to life for the pupils.”

“Whilst at Disneyland, the pupils are given an opportunity to learn about some of the real life practical applications of Maths,” said Head Teacher, Mr Wiktor Daron. “They studied aspects of the subject which I am sure will help them both with their GCSE studies and also when they enter the world of work.”

With stories circulating everywhere about the government’s plan to claw-back unspent money in April, schools in England have started to spend money.  Reports from manufacturers and retailers of educational products show a definite upturn in recent weeks.

The fear is that the DfCSF is going to use un-spent money in excess of the 5% or 8% each school is allowed to hold back as a way of cutting the educational bill in England – and possibly in Wales as well.  There’s no news yet on plans in Scotland, and issues in N Ireland are clouded by the problems over the re-organisation that was due to take place on 1 January.

An average underspend by just 2% or 3% beyond the permitted retention level will result in the government having the ability to cut the budget by £2bn – taking back the unspent money this year and cutting the budget by the same amount next year.

In order to sidetrack schools from the issue the new Standards Fund budget has been put forward in England, with virtually no cuts at all – and it is possible that it is this, rather than the awareness of the need to spend before April 5 that is causing the up turn in spending.

Some schools however look as if they are still holding on to money – either leaving it until the last minute, or because they believe the claw-back won’t apply to them.

It will be interesting to see how government respond in the coming few days to this change of attitude in spending by schools.

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The new “rarely cover” rules which stop teachers covering lessons for colleagues when it is known in advance that the teacher will be out of school, have brought the government’s “learning outside the classroom” programme to a halt.

The policy was instigated in 2006 and seemed to be making significant progress, (details are at http://www.lotc.org.uk/ but of late there has been a slowing down.

This downturn comes on top of the problems that schools are facing because of worries over health and safety issues.

A survey of around 1,500 teachers by the Countryside Alliance found that although 97 per cent of teachers thought it was important to teach pupils about the countryside, three quarters felt that health and safety concerns were a barrier to them doing so.
Just under half said they feared litigation in the “unlikely event of an accident”.

This worry is not reflected in the reality of legal claims, in that only 364 have been made against local authorities in the last 10 years.  Local authorities paid out less than £300 a year in compesnation during this year.

A separate poll of 2,000 six to 15-year-olds found that although 85 per cent of youngsters wanted more school trips, less than half (46 per cent) had visited the countryside with their school in the past year.

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This money will then be taken back by local authorities, and then in a complex arrangement the government will reduce the funding to the authorities in order to recover the money.

Further the government will then reduce the school’s funding for the following year.

For an average sized secondary school the sum will be around £35,000.

It is understood that plans are afoot to issue a series of rules against which any claims for “long term” projects which would qualify for holding money back will be measured.  These are thought to include

…. Clear evidence of completive tendering for the project – three tenders will need to be on the table

…. Clear evidence of the work having started or a non-refundable payment having been made

If this holding back of 3% more than is allowed is indeed the average for schools then the government will in a matter of weeks after the end of the financial year, cut the education by £2bn, and will deflect any criticism of their cutting of the budget by referring to their requirement of efficiency savings.

Schools can of course beat this system by spending their money, but at the moment the evidence is uneven.  Some schools have significantly held back on their budgets, and have spent 25% less than during the first half of last academic year.

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Reports are coming in that a number of local authorities have started to receive a letter from the Dept for Children Schools and Families on the subject of unspent school spending.

In essence the letters remind local authority education finance directors of the agreement  introduced two years ago which states that schools must spend the vast majority of their budget each year, by the end of the financial year.   This agreement followed pressure from the National Union of Teachers on the subject.

The letter further suggests that the government will expect local authorities to take firm and clear action to recover all unspent money immediately after the end of the financial year next April.

Several local papers have started picking up on these letters.  Here is what the newspaper in Derbyshire said earlier this week…

“Until now, the council has been happy to allow surpluses to remain where schools have a plausible reason, such as building repairs or projects overlapping from one financial year to another.

“Head teachers have only been challenged if more than 8% of a primary school budget and 5% of a secondary school budget remains at the end of the financial year.

“But pressure from the Government, which has said it will take action if national totals have not fallen by 2011, has prompted the city council to put forward plans to claw back the cash at the end of this financial year.”  (This is Derbyshire, 23 November).

Our understanding is that the new letter removes the 2011 timeline and insists that the money left over, beyond the 5% and 8% limit, must be returned in April 2010 – not one year later as originally (informally) planned.

It also implies that the old system of offering a simple explanation for money held over (“we’re planning to replace the boiler next autumn”) are no longer going to be accepted at face value.

We’re looking into this and hope to have more information soon.  If you have any information on this topic please do write to II@schoolsare.us

Ofsted has been endlessly criticised within government – not least because of its grossly inefficient inspections of school finances.  Time and again Ofsted inspectors have announced that the school is well run financially, and then it is revealed that during the inspection wholesale theft has been going on.

The Schools News Service (www.schools.co.uk/subscribe.html) has been particularly outspoken on this issue.

Ofsted also made itself a laughing stock when it inspected itself and get itself the highest possible level of grades for its own performance.    Then it admitted in the middle of the Baby P scandal that it only kept records for 3 months – thus when it referred back to previous inspections and reports it was in fact working from non-existent documentation.

Now at last voices are being raised.   Councils, headteachers and MPs who have accused the inspectorate of being “flawed, wasteful and failing”.

Ofsted is to have several aspects of its inspection techniques brought under the spotlight.  One example being quoted is a school that was marked down because a playground fence was deemed to be too low.

Worse, as we all know, Ofsted sub-contracts everything – but has little control over the quality of its inspection regime.

The most damning criticism has come from the Association of Directors of Children’s Services (ADCS), which represents the head of children’s departments in councils in England. The body said that new annual performance profiles being developed by Ofsted were “not fit for purpose”.

A spokesman for Ofsted said: “We are disappointed to hear the ADCS criticisms but have to say that their views just don’t accord with what we are being told by directors and frontline social workers who have actually experienced our children’s services inspections. The feedback we are getting is much more positive.”

The children, schools and families select committee will shortly publish a report saying that Ofsted’s inspectors aren’t trained properly and inspections focus too much on exam data. Committee chair Barry Sheerman claimed that schools in poor areas were “aggrieved” that even when they had improved they could still be failed because of low exam results.

I think most of us in education have known this for a long, long, time.