It is often the smallest village primary schools who struggle the most with funding, not least those here in the Forest of Dean. They are also often highly valued by parents.
I am pleased that the Government’s recently announced changes to school funding go quite some way to addressing this problem. The government is delivering the largest cash increase to school funding in a decade; this will see £14.4 billion more spent on education over three years.
Funding for mainstream schools is increasing by 3.2% overall in 2022-23, and by 2.8% per pupil. Every primary school will receive at least £4,265 per pupil, and every secondary school at least £5,525.
What’s even more important for schools in the Forest is how this funding is being allocated. The ‘sparsity’ factor can see some small and remote schools attract extra funding of up to £55,000 for primary schools, and up to £80,000 for secondary schools – in both cases, a £10,000 increase from 2021- 22.
The Government will also change how they measure ‘remoteness.’ A seemingly simple switch to using road distances from straight line distances will see an additional £53 million allocated to rural schools.
As a result of these changes, one Forest of Dean primary school is set to see their per pupil funding increase by over 50%, with a number of others seeing their funding increase by as much as 30 or 40%. This is fantastic news for our hard-working teachers, especially after the challenging year they’ve just had.
Also announced is additional funding of £780 million for children with special educational needs or disabilities – an increase of at least 8% per local authority. I know there are a number of families in the Forest of Dean who will benefit from this.
These announcements come on top of the Condition Improvement Fund which has already seen funding allocated to improving facilities at the Forest High School in Cinderford, the Dean Academy in Lydney and Newent Community School.
I look forward to seeing this additional funding put to good use supporting children across the Forest.