Show me the money!
In the film ‘Jerry Maguire’, Tom Cruise is an agent for a NFL player played by Cuba Gooding. In a memorable scene Gooding’s character keeps repeating the same refrain, “Show me the money” as a means of stating very clearly that he was looking for an improved contract with his team.
As a high school Head Teacher in Northumberland for over 10 years, in two very different schools, I often feel like shouting, “Show me the money!” – even more so in the last few years as talk of a national fair funding formula has gained momentum. My worry is that realising a national fair formula will take far too long – it has already been delayed by over a year due to ministerial changes, with 2018 being bandied around as the new date for implementation. That is simply not good enough for children currently in the system and who are moving through schools that are scandalously underfunded.
Are we really underfunded?
According to the 2015 DfE Performance Tables Ponteland High School received income of £4558 per pupil, whilst the median figure for Northumberland was £5473 and the national median was £5894.
Had we been funded at the median level for Northumberland we would have increased our budget by over £1 million and by in excess of £1.5 million had we been funded at the national median rate – what a difference that would have made to our students and staff!
Why is funding in Northumberland so poor?
In 2007 the Labour Government introduced the ‘dedicated schools grant’ and this merely replicated the historic funding levels that had existed in Local Authorities without looking at whether this was the right thing to do or not. At a stroke, central government inadvertently set in stone a system of funding inequality that we are still grappling with now.
When you study the varying sums provided to schools in different areas of the country it is possible to see that funding inequality is stark. The Annual Weighted Pupil Unit (AWPU) for a KS4 student can differ widely and begs the question, ‘why should funding for a KS4 pupil in Northumberland be funded at a significantly lower rate than most other areas in the country especially when it costs about the same to educate a student in most parts of the country?’
An example of inequality
When I joined Ponteland High School in September 2012 I was aware that the school was the lowest funded high in one of the lowest funded authorities in the country. Despite that I was eager to join what is a great school with fantastic staff and students.
In sharing the funding issue with governors I sought to offer a comparison to a similar sized school. For this purpose I used a secondary Academy in London with a high profile head that had just moved to a new post. This London Academy had a similar number of students to my new school but that is where the similarities ended. Stand out differences included:
- 70 teachers at Ponteland compared to 150 in the London school
- Approximately £5 million budget for Ponteland with £10.5 million at the other school
Is this fair? Of course not, it is indefensible, even if you take account of the London weighting.
Consider the improvements we could make if we had twice as many teachers in terms of:
- Improved progress and outcomes at GCSE and A level, in part due to the following points
- Increased range of curriculum subjects at GCSE and A level
- Reduced class sizes for all subjects
- More scope for intervention and support for individuals in need
- Improved resources and investment in the school environment
- More scope for funded enrichment activities
- Possibly reduced contact time for teachers to ease workload concerns
It strikes me as shocking that within our country two schools can be so similar in pupil numbers but so disparate in funding. At the same time these two schools are held similarly accountable under the current accountability system and Ofsted framework. I don’t have an issue with that but I would like to enjoy the same advantages as my colleague headteachers elsewhere that have much healthier budgets.
Despite this, staff at Ponteland High School remain determined to support our students in achieving excellent outcomes in spite of these inequalities. I look forward to the day when we can do even better by them because they are funded at an appropriate rate than is comparable to their peers elsewhere in the country. My fear is that I will still be shouting ‘Show me the money’ for years to come.
Kieran McGrane, Head Teacher at Ponteland Community High School and SCHOOLS NorthEast Trustee