The funding of schools is based primarily on the number of pupils and students in each school. Thus the big benefit schools will get from the extra money the government has announced comes from the fact that the school population has risen dramatically in recent years, and is still rising.
The latest data shows that the secondary school population will reach 3.3 million in 2027, which is getting on for half a million more than there were 10 years earlier. In primary schools the rise is even bigger and will of course continue to push up the secondary school numbers.
Now normally such increases in school numbers would result in more teachers – and the extra money gained by schools would go to pay these teachers’ salaries.
But these are not normal times because the number of teachers is rising at only a tiny fraction of the rate needed to keep up with pupil and student increases. This is partly due to awful advertising campaigns created by people who know nothing about teaching, partly teach because of the relative decline in teachers’ wages due to the austerity programme and partly because of the stress of the job.
This stagnation in the number of teachers is having an impact on schools, because the money that they would normally spend on teachers is still coming into each school’s coffers, but as it is hard to recruit teachers, they are having to spend it on something else.
Thus many schools are reducing the hours of teaching time, because they don’t have the teachers, and using the funds thus released in other ways.
The government has now announced that teacher starting salaries will be raised to £30,000 although not until 2022 and it is doubtful if this will make much difference to the numbers.
In short schools are getting bigger, and so have more money. But they can’t spend it on teachers, because there is a shortage of teachers in many parts of the country. So they are using the funds to buy equipment and undertake repairs.
Given these new circumstances, if you want to reach out to schools in the coming weeks and months to take advantage of this situation, you might care to try our 4-Email programme which delivers emails to teachers of your choice a much reduced price.
You can undertake four secondary school promotions to teachers of your choice for £215, which works out at around 3p per teacher reached. For primary schools the cost of four emails is £289.
To find out more please do call 01604 880 927, or email Stephen@schools.co.uk or take a look at the details of the 4 Email campaigns on our website
