Statements made by the government both before and since the general election suggest clearly that the additional funding for schools will be reaching schools this April.
However this is only part of the only boost to their funding that schools are getting.
For, although the funding crisis can be resolved with a stroke of the pen in Whitehall, a second issue remains – and this again adds to the money available for products and services.
Although the news was overshadowed by the forthcoming election, in November 2019 the government failed to reach its recruitment targets for secondary school teacher trainees for the seventh year running.
True, the figures show a slight increase in the number of teachers in schools – but not enough to compensate for the huge growth in the number of children now in school.
Indeed the DfE’s own figures show that there are now only 85% of the total number of teachers required in secondary schools, based on the government’s own model.
There are certain subjects that are particularly short of specialists (physics, modern foreign languages, maths, chemistry, and computing are the worst affected). Indeed the figure for physics is extraordinary: two years ago schools recruited 47% of the physics teachers required. Last year it was down again to 43%!
Some subjects are doing better than feared, such as biology, geography and history, but primary schools were again 4% below the needed number of teachers. And there’s a further problem: around one third of all teachers leave teaching within five years.
Meanwhile the secondary school population will rise by a further 400,000 by 2027.
But – and this is the point that is of prime interest to those of us who sell to schools – the new money coming into schools through the increase funding per child and the increased number of children, is not going out again on salaries – since teacher numbers are declining.
Thus this extra money is coming into the schools’ coffers to be spent on resources. Choices are being made this term, and the spending will start shortly.
As ever Schools.co.uk specialises in generating more sales per advertisement, and if you would like to talk about how you can run a campaign or simply a one-off email promotion at this time we’re here to help.
There are details of our discount “4-email” programme on our website, or you can call 01604 880 927 or email Stephen@schools.co.uk to discuss the best promotional campaign to suit your product or service.
