I spent a very interesting afternoon at a meeting at Stormont, hosted by my Union...the NAHT.
Attending the meeting were numerous political representatives including the DUP Ex-Education Minister Peter Weir and the Permanent Secretary to the Department of Education Derek Baker.
Under discussion was the funding crisis in our schools.
Schools are funded in a number of ways...firstly by an amount of money for each child. This however is only the start for some schools, with extra funding given per pupil who are on Free School Meals, as a measure of Social Deprivation.
Our school always does very badly out of this funding formula as our level of Free School Meals is very low. As a result we only receive about half of the funding per pupil that some other schools receive.
It is often very difficult to get any sort of agreement between schools on this issue...as the schools who do very well out of the funding formula are not going to ever vote to have their funding reduced...so we can have a little more.
However, for the first time that I remember, even the schools who are better off per pupil are finding that they can't afford to run their schools, so there was a consensus for change.
The NAHT is pushing for additional funding for schools and the Common Funding Formula to be revisited so that the basic funding per pupil would allow all schools to be able to pay for their teachers and staff...with Social Deprivation funding added after that.
Not a solution...but a welcome acknowledgement of a sensible way forward
For more on the meeting please click on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-41392511
