Schools throughout Warwickshire are in line for a funding increase following an announcement by the Secretary of State for Education, the Rt. Hon. Justine Greening MP, in the House of Commons last week.
The announcement forms part of the Government’s commitment to deliver fairer funding for all schools and end the historic postcode lottery which sees some schools receive over £500 per pupil less than a school of similar circumstances in a different part of the country.
Mark has campaigned on this issue since becoming an MP as part of the f40 fairer funding campaign. This campaign represents the local authorities with the lowest levels of school funding, which includes Warwickshire.
Under the proposals set out by the Department for Education, all primary schools will receive at least £3,500 funding per pupil and secondary schools will receive at least £4,800 per pupil by 2019-2020. Rugby will see an increase of 4.5% in funding compared to 2017/18 based on the figures made available by the Department for Education.
Speaking after the Secretary of State’s announcement, Mark said:
“This announcement is great news for pupils, teachers and parents in Rugby and Bulkington and follows the Secretary of States commitment in July to provide an additional £1.3 billion to our schools. I know that there has been a great deal of concern about the future funding of our schools, particularly in historically underfunded areas such as Warwickshire.”
Mark continued:
“Following last year’s announcement of a new National Funding Formula, I raised the challenges that schools in Rugby would have faced directly with the Secretary of State. I am very pleased that this announcement has responded to those concerns and will deliver a fairer deal for schools across both our town and throughout Warwickshire.”
Mark concluded:
“Ensuring our children get the best possible start in life is one of the most important responsibilities of government. We can be proud that since 2010, there are now 1.8 million more pupils being taught in good or outstanding schools and we need to continue to build on this progress. This announcement, moving to end the historic underfunding of schools in Warwickshire, will help to give all schools the resources they need to deliver for the next generation.”