HBS applies to govt for funds to expand to five form entry

[Reading Mum]

but that doesn't help if the building work is needed first.
The extra money per capita will need to be spent on the students (extra teachers/resources) not on captital building projects

[Guest55]

If there is spare money it should be given to struggling schools not Grammars!

The ones near me raised the money themselves ...

[thisisnuts]

If there is spare money it should be given to struggling schools not Grammars!

The ones near me raised the money themselves ...

Did they raise money for building work to accommodate more pupils?

In Harrow, a whole new secondary school has recently been built to meet the demand for places. I'm pretty sure the capital expenditure would have been financed by the DfE.

Expenditure to increase the number of available places is different to increasing operational funding per pupil.

Or are you suggesting that the wisest course of action is to expand struggling schools??

[Guest55]

I'm suggesting giving more funding to struggling schools so they can improve.

Every school gets capital funding for building ...

[thisisnuts]

But you're still refusing to acknowledge that money must be spent up-front if there is a need to increase the number of school places.

Short of shipping half a million people to the less densely populated parts of the country, the pressure on school places in the South East is not going to ease any time soon.

[Reading Mum]

I'm suggesting giving more funding to struggling schools so they can improve.

Every school gets capital funding for building ...

Every school can apply for funding for building - it does not mean they get it.

[Guest55]

Grammars should NOT be given this spare cash ..

You can't spend capital funding on books or teachers.

[thisisnuts]

Grammars should NOT be given this spare cash ..

Is it "spare" cash, or is it capital funding required to enable the LA to meet its obligation to provide sufficient school places?

If the latter, whether the funds are used to expand an existing grammar, an existing comp, or build a new school is a separate debate.

You can't spend capital funding on books or teachers.

True, the money can only be spent once. But how does increased spending on teachers and books enable the LA to provide more school places.

By your argument, the only way more children can be accommodated is by squeezing more and more children into each class!

[Amber]

But you're still refusing to acknowledge that money must be spent up-front if there is a need to increase the number of school places.

Short of shipping half a million people to the less densely populated parts of the country, the pressure on school places in the South East is not going to ease any time soon.

You seem to be suggesting that grammar schools need to expand to address a shortage of school places. That is not the case at all. If there is a shortage of school places in a given area there is no need for those places to be created in grammar schools above others. This is about individual schools who know they can fill places grabbing money from other schools by taking extra children and therefore extra funding. It will lead to fewer children in less prestigious schools. You can't blame the grammars, as schools in this country are parlously and chronically underfunded, and this is set to get worse as Tory adventures in Brexit continue, but it is not about service to the community or being more inclusive - that is the rhetoric used to justify it and you can see that in other areas not just the South East (check out Warwikshire forum, Gloucestershire forum and no doubt others).

[stroudydad]

But you're still refusing to acknowledge that money must be spent up-front if there is a need to increase the number of school places.

Short of shipping half a million people to the less densely populated parts of the country, the pressure on school places in the South East is not going to ease any time soon.

Well perhaps by the time the Tories have finished with brexit and all the big business has moved there won't be any need for anyone to live in the south east and they will realise that there are actually lots nicer places to live.. there must be some upside to the chaos, perhaps that's it..