Top Gun…hang on let me take a moment…OK.
It’s interesting to note that Goose doesn’t actually say this often used “quote” from Top Gun. He does say; ‘We’ve got no fuel for this’, ‘We’re low on gas’ and ‘We’re on vapour’, but no matter, all four apply to current education funding. Basically, we are running our schools on such a low funding formula that we are, without doubt, all about to crash and burn.
The National Funding Formula, which has just entered consultation, has done little to reassure me that the current Government are looking to balance funding more evenly across the country. All I’m hearing from them is that I need to make cuts. Cut what? Having worked in my county, one of the lowest funded, for over 10 years, I assure you I have cut everything I can without impacting the curriculum they require me to deliver. The next round of inevitable cuts will sweep away whole subjects, experienced teachers, essential resources (aka text books), IT and that additional ‘jam’ that make school days fun.
As I said in the last blog. Yes. I know HOW to make cuts, and yes, I COULD make cuts but I’ll tell you, EFA, what I want in return…
1. I want the funding I get per average pupil to be the same as the funding given to the average pupil in Kent, Cornwall, Cumbria and Lincolnshire (and every other authority in the land)
2. When you increase employers NI and employers pension, introduce the apprentice levy etc. etc. I want you to give me funding to pay it, not expect me to take it off the educational experience.
3. When you make sweeping statements such as “we want all schools to be part of a MAT” I want you to stick by it even if it is unpopular. Not publicly U-turn and then cut our funding so we look like the bad guys.
Not too much to ask I’d say.
But back to my theme. I don’t want this blog to be all about funding for the whole year (even though that will probably the main focus of my daily working life in 2017). So I will just misquote Top Gun one last time and use it as an excuse to post a picture of the most handsome man in the universe (sorry Barry).
I’m telling you, as your wingman,
We’re running on vapours May!
WorkingSBM 