Our ref : 0241

January 2017

Dear Parents / Carers

Following my letter yesterday regarding the Fairer Funding Formula consultation I have been overwhelmed by your support. Thank you, this means an awful lot! You may have seen this story in the national press this morning. It has been sensibly suggested that I write a model letter for you to send to your MP or to the Minister(s) and I include this along with names and contact details below.

Secretary of State for Education – Justine Greening MP [email protected] House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Minister for Schools – Nick Gibb MP [email protected] House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Mid and North – MP [email protected] House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA

Poole BC – Robert Syms MP [email protected] Poole Conservative Association, 38 Sandbanks Road, Poole, BH14 8BX

Thank you for your support – I hope that with our combined efforts we can change the Ministers’ approach.

Yours sincerely

Tracy Harris

Address Address Address

Date

Dear

I write to outline my very serious concerns about the impact of the proposed National Fair Funding Formula on my daughter’s school, Parkstone Grammar School in Poole.

Let us be clear that we do not disagree with many of the principles of which the National Fair Funding Formula is based. It is not morally acceptable for a family’s post code to dictate how much funding a school receives to educate a child and we agree that more resources are needed to help a disadvantaged child and a child with low prior attainment make good progress.

As you are aware, Poole is the second most poorly funded school per pupil in the country. Justine Greening’s Executive Summary states that “On average, schools in the historically lowest-funded local authority areas will gain 3.6% as a result of this formula”.

However, the initial data reveals a different picture. The Baseline funding proposed for both Poole grammar schools is a reduction of 1.2%.

These significant funding cuts, and the squeeze on school budgets irrespective of any funding formula change are untenable. You will know that schools have faced unfunded increases to Teachers’ Pension employer contributions, National Insurance contributions, the costs imposed by radical GCSE and A Level reforms, and from April 2017 unfunded increases to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) employer contributions, and the Apprenticeship levy.

Despite these pressures, over the last few years Parkstone has responded positively to reduce management costs, rationalise curriculum budgets, increase student numbers and class sizes and improve cost and system efficiencies. The school has not complained about the additional workload pressure, the pay freeze that has reduced salaries in real terms by 16%, the significant reduction in pension provision or the reduction in external agency support. We genuinely recognise that public services need to shoulder their fair share of the burden of public debt.

However, we cannot accept the impact of the proposed National Fair Funding Formula without shouting very loudly on behalf of the students in our school. It is welcomed that under the proposals currently out for consultation, almost all primary and secondary schools in Poole will receive an increase in funding of between 1% and 6%. Poole schools have been under-funded for many years and the Fair Funding Formula will now mean that children living in Poole will move closer in funding to those children living in highly-funded areas.

However, this is not all children in Poole. If you happen to be an able child attending one of the grammar schools you will actually receive between 2.8% and 4.8% less funding. Here is our point of principle –

How can a child in an under-funded authority receive significantly less funding as a consequence of a Fair Funding Formula?

2/….

I understand that this has been an ‘unintended’ consequence of reducing the per student factor from 76.6% to 72.5% and increasing the deprivation / low attainment factor from 5.4% to 9.3%. This has meant that grammar schools across the country have been adversely affected by the change. In Poole, the reduction in funding for the grammar schools is actually more than the average reduction for Tower Hamlets, the highest funded Local Authority in the country. Children in Tower Hamlets currently receive over £2,500 (almost 60%) more than children in Poole. The impact of the National Fair Funding Formula will mean that this unacceptable differential will actually increase in regard to students in grammar schools in Poole.

The increase in weighting for deprivation, and thus the reduction in per student weighting, is commendable but we believe it is misplaced. Children from deprived backgrounds (Pupil Premium) already receive an additional £935 each year through the Pupil Premium. The extensive research on the impact of the Pupil Premium suggests that the billions of pound invested in the scheme has had very limited impact. In Poole this means a child in receipt of the Pupil Premium already has an additional 20% funding.

If unchanged, this formula will have a devastating impact on provision. We do not like to complain about decisions (especially highly complex ones like a National Funding Formula) without offering a solution. It appears that grammar schools across the country, and most obviously in Poole, have been badly affected by the changes to the weightings. A solution to this unintended problem would be –

Where there are grammar schools in previously under-funded local authorities these grammar schools will receive an increase in per pupil funding based on the average increase for other secondary schools in the Local Authority.

This solution would not be particularly expensive but it would be the right thing to do and would avoid many grammar schools losing their distinctive ability to offer a highly academic curriculum for our country’s most able children.

Yours sincerely