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NEWS


Schools still in the dark over promised £2bn building fund


By Pete Henshaw


None of the £2 billion earmarked to rebuild up to 300 of the country’s most run-down schools has been handed out. A series of missed deadlines


and long delays have plagued the government’s Priority Schools Building Programme, it has been claimed. The Local Government Association (LGA) has carried out fresh analysis of the situation and says that councils are having to use their own resources to plug the funding gaps. The Priority Schools Building


Programme was launched by the Department for Education (DfE) after it axed the Building Schools for the Future project. The deadline for schools to bid for funding from the new pot


was October 14 last year. The DfE had promised to announce the first round of successful applications in December, and then again in February, but the LGA says local authorities have been told to expect a decision “in due course”. The DfE has not even confirmed


how many bids it has received for funding, the LGA said. The LGA’s own research has


found that the scheme is heavily oversubscribed, with as many as 476 schools applying, saying that they are in “dire need” of new or refurbished buildings. It is thought this figure, which


includes 140 secondary schools, could be even higher as the data comes only from two-thirds of councils and does not include academies. Nottinghamshire County Council has submitted one of


the largest bids, asking for up to £176 million to rebuild or refurbish 48 schools, including 11 secondaries. Cllr David Simmonds, chair


of the LGA’s Children and Young People Board, said that it was now clear that the funding will not be able to cover all of the schools that need it. He said: “The situation is now unacceptable and threatens to severely impact on our children’s education. Schools can wait three months to repair a leaky roof if they know that at some point it will be fixed, but when that wait turns into six months, then 12 months or more, the delays become intolerable. “Heads are telling us that the


condition of some schools is so bad it is getting in the way of providing a good education. The Department’s refusal to provide any reassurances is leaving schools in limbo and


Call for better scrutiny to stop ‘worrying’ school spending


A better system of scrutiny of school spending is needed to prevent “worrying expenditure”, a committee of MPs has claimed. The Public Accounts


Committee said improvements were needed to value-for-money checks, particularly in schools that have the most autonomy over their budgets, such as academies. In a report published last week,


MPs said they were alarmed at spending levels in some schools, which included high salaries for staff. It said a balance needed to be found between more rigorous accountability and over-burdening schools with bureaucracy. The government said it was


publishing more information than ever on how schools spend their money, which it says will improve accountability. Last year, the Department for


Education (DfE) distributed more than £56 billion to schools, local authorities and other public bodies for education and children’s services in England. Committee chairwoman, Margaret Hodge, said it was not clear how responsibility for ensuring value for money was determined. The report comes at a


time when the government is escalating its academies programme, with more than half of England’s secondaries now converted. Ms Hodge said: “As the government devolves the


delivery of education in England, it becomes ever more important for the Department to tell us exactly how accountability to Parliament is going to work so that we can properly follow the taxpayer’s pound. “We remain very concerned


at the weakness of the proposed arrangements


to ensure


accountability for value for money.” The report concluded: “The


DfE will rely on a mix of local accountability mechanisms, information systems, inspection, and oversight bodies to gain the necessary assurances over regularity, propriety, and value for money. “It needs to do more work


to clearly define how funding streams will be monitored, audit arrangements, and processes to support whistle-blowers.” And the committee said it was


“alarmed” by reports of “worrying expenditure” in schools, including high salaries to heads and other


senior staff. It added: “We are concerned that the accountability framework is not sufficiently robust to address operational or financial failure of service providers.” Christine Blower, general


secretary of the National Union of Teachers, said: “The DfE is removing local authorities’ ability to support schools in managing their budgets and to ensure accountability and probity. All schools including academies should be working within a consistent and democratically accountable locally based framework.” A DfE spokesman said: “We


are publishing more data on how schools spend their money than ever before. This will improve accountability for all schools. Local authorities are statutorily responsible for ensuring effective financial management in their schools and we are strengthening arrangements for the assurances they provide us with. “Academies have more rigorous financial systems


in place than maintained schools, and have a statutory requirement to produce independently audited annual accounts. The Department and Education Funding Agency will challenge academies if


they believe funds are being spent inappropriately.”


Warning after gay marriage petition


The Welsh government has written to all Catholic schools calling on them to give a “balanced perspective” when discussing same- sex marriage. Education minister Leighton


Andrews took the action after the Catholic Education Service (CES) invited schools to ask pupils to sign a petition opposing gay civic marriage laws. Mr Andrews said the CES


campaign was political but the CES denies breaking the law by allowing political campaigning in schools. Both sides of a political argument must be discussed in classes for the under-12s. In his letter, Mr Andrews wrote


that the CES’s initial correspondence was “regrettable” because it did not make clear that only children over 16 should sign the petition. “While the petition itself is not


directly related to a party political matter it does in my view relate to political matters generally as the petition is seeking to persuade


people to lobby the Westminster government to prevent a change in the law,” he added. He said he was writing to “remind” them of their legal obligations under the Education Act 1996. “These provisions require


that headteachers and governing bodies must not allow the pursuit of partisan political activities by any registered pupil who has not reached the age of 12 and must not allow the promotion of such views in any subject taught,” Mr Andrews added. “I trust you will ensure that if your pupils have been made aware of this correspondence they will also be made aware of the converse view in order to give them a balanced perspective.” The CES has now issued new


guidelines to its schools to remind them that children under the age of 16 cannot sign the online petition. A statement on its website


added: “The Catholic Church’s view on the importance of marriage is a religious view, not a political one.”


Clegg: I want to see Pupil Premium results


If a school’s Pupil Premium students fail, then it will “more likely than not” be judged to be failing as a whole, the deputy prime minister has warned. In a speech on the Pupil


Premium this week, Nick Clegg revealed that Ofsted will be providing him with regular reports on the effect that the funding is having on the ground in schools. He warned that Ofsted will be “looking forensically” at how


SecEd • May 17 2012


well Pupil Premium pupils do in schools. He said: “The message should


be clear. If a school’s Pupil Premium population are failing – more likely than not – the whole school will be judged to be failing. At that point, the inspections will become more frequent and Ofsted will take a much closer interest in how that school’s Pupil Premium is being spent.” Mr Clegg said he wanted to give


schools the freedom to decide how best their Pupil Premium should be spent. He added: “We won’t be telling you what to do, but we will be watching what you achieve.” The Pupil Premium is money


that has been ring-fenced from the existing schools budget to help schools close the attainment gap for pupils on free school meals. The Premium is worth £600-per- pupil this year and is worth £1.25 billion in total.


Mr Clegg also announced a new


cash award for those schools which are judged to have done the most to boost the performance of their poorest pupils. The top 50 schools in the


country will be recognised with prizes of up to £10,000. Reacting to the speech this week,


Martin Johnson, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: “It’s great that one coalition partner is


serious about reducing inequalities, and schools are grateful for the Pupil Premium. Unfortunately the Premium has to be used to plug the gap left by real-terms cuts in schools' main funding.” Mr Clegg also praised the 2,100


schools which have applied to run Pupil Premium summer schools and said that as many as 70,000 11-year-olds could attend one this year as they prepare to move from primary to secondary school.


with councils’ stretched education budgets having already suffered a 32 per cent cut, there is little room for manoeuvre at a local level.” Chris Keates, general secretary


of the NASUWT, said: “This delay is not because the government does not have the money. It is because a disproportionate amount of the available capital funds appear to have been siphoned off by the DfE into a ‘slush’ fund to be used to tempt or bribe schools into becoming academies. “By the DfE’s own admission,


100 free schools get £600 million, 1,500 academies have apparently been given an additional £250 million, while children in the 22,000 other schools have to fight over a few hundred pounds.” A DfE spokesperson said:


“There has been huge interest in the Priority Schools Building


Programme. We are carefully assessing and reviewing each application. We make no apologies for having a fair, thorough and


rigorous bidding process. We are taking our time to get this right and will announce our decisions as soon as we can.”


Troubles taught in Irish


Secondary pupils in Northern Ireland are to be taught about the history of the Troubles – in Irish. Education minister John


O’Dowd is rolling out a new version of the popular From Prison to Peace resource. The resource allows post-


primary pupils to hear and learn from the experiences of individual ex-combatants from different backgrounds. It is designed for young


people growing up in a much more peaceful Northern Ireland, who may struggle to understand what it was like to grow up in the very violent years of the past. They can explore the impact


of the conflict on individuals, families and communities and reflect on their own social responsibilities in their community and in wider society. Pupils are asked to consider


the factors that influenced individuals’ decisions to become involved in the conflict. They will also explore the reality of the prison experience and its impact on political ex-prisoners, their families and their communities. In addition, they will also


become familiar with the post-conflict work of political ex-prisoners in conflict transformation and community development. Up until now, the resource


has been available in English only, but an Irish version is now being offered. It is for the local and global citizenship element of the curriculum and is to be delivered to key stage 4 pupils. Mr O’Dowd said citizenship


education enables pupils to respond to the challenges and opportunities that our increasingly diverse society presents. He added: “If we are to move


forward as a society, we need to fully understand our past. I believe our young people can gain a deeper understanding of our past conflict through honest and frank accounts based on real-life experiences.”


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