Justin Tomlinson MP Highlights How Record Education Funding Is Delivering Results In Swindon

North Swindon MP Justin Tomlinson has highlighted the positive effect a Conservative government is having on education in Swindon; as funding, standards & results all increase, and new schools are delivered.

The funding for schools in England is at a record high this year of almost £43 billion. From September, education providers in Swindon will receive a total of over £161 million of core funding, plus an additional £9.1 million of Pupil Premium support to assist children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

At the same time, we are also protecting funding for those with additional needs; investing nearly £2.5 billion this year to give disadvantaged children extra support, and spending £5.8 billion to create even more good school places. Justin has actively campaigned to secure vital new investment to support pupils with Special Educational Needs & Autistic Spectrum Conditions.

Despite inaccurate stories, which do not take into account rising pupil numbers, the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has been clear: the Government has protected the core schools budget in real terms since 2010, and our additional £1.3 billion investment this year means we are maintaining per pupil funding in real terms through to 2020. We invest more in our schools, per pupil, than either Germany or Japan, and real terms school spending per pupil in 2019–20 will be more than 50% higher than it was in 2000–01.

The Conservative Government is also ending the unfair distribution of school funding. The system for school funding has historically been unfair, opaque and outdated. Schools facing the same challenges, and for which we set the same expectations, have received wildly different resources.

Under this old flawed and broken formula, schools in different parts of the country who have the same proportion of their pupils eligible for the pupil premium, can see a variance in funding of £500 more for each pupil. The old funding system has stood in the way of schools supporting every child to succeed and prevented teachers from delivering the highest-quality education we know they want to provide.

Swindon’s schools have been particularly badly affected by Labour’s flawed funding formula. It is a flawed formula that Justin has actively campaign to change so that every child has an equal opportunity. That is why we have taken action to correct this and Justin secured more than £4.3million worth of transitional funding for Swindon schools as we move towards ending the postcode lottery of old.

Our proposals for funding reform will mean that schools and local areas will, for the first time, receive a consistent and fair share of the schools budget, so that they can give every child the opportunity to reach their full potential while having the certainty of budgets going forward.

Record funding has also been translated into better rated school and positive academic outcomes.

Since the Conservatives came to power in 2010, 1.9 million more children are attending schools which are rated Good or Outstanding by Ofsted. It means that since 2010, the percentage of pupils at a Good or Outstanding school has rocketed from 66% to 87%. Official statistics show 12,803 children in North Swindon are now attending schools rated good or outstanding – an increase of 3,474 since 2010.

Results are on the rise too. Under Labour, we shamefully plummeted down the international league tables however England’s average score in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study has risen twice since 2010 and we are now joint 8^th, having achieved our highest ever average score last year.

Similarly, the number of pupils able to fluently read fell dramatically. To counter this, in 2012 Ministers brought in a new phonics screening check. In the first year of the Phonics Check, 58% of six year-olds reached the pass mark. This year, 81% reached that standard, with 92% reaching that standard by the end of year 2. As a result statistics show 147,000 more six year-olds became fluent readers in 2016 compared with the same period five years ago.

Similarly, pupils in Swindon are excelling academically. This year, Swindon had one of the top ten highest increases in the country for the phonics screening check while our Key Stage 1 results were above the national average. In reading, 76% of pupils reached the expected standard before reaching KS2 while 71% of children met the required level of writing – soaring above England’s 68 per cent national average. In Maths, 77% of children reached the expected standard, while in Science that figure was a staggering 86%.

Alongside record funding & increased standards, the Government has also committed to building new schools, creating new school places, and refurbishing existing buildings.

Working alongside Swindon Borough Council, Justin has helped to secure new primary schools in Tadpole Garden Village, the Churchward ASC School, and the £21 million Great Western Academy secondary school which will educated more than 1,200 pupils between the ages of 11 & 18. This builds on the expansion of schools in the northern sector to ensure parents can send their children to their preferred local school. Pupils in Swindon are significantly more like to get into one of their top choice school than the national average.

In recent years we have also seen existing schools in North Swindon benefit from the Condition Improvement Fund, a major investment in school infrastructure by the Department for Education. From new heating systems to state-of-the-art sports halls, Conservative Minister have made new money available. As part of this year’s Fund, Ministers have announced £514 million to cover 1,556 projects at 1,299 academies and sixth-form colleges; including several projects in Swindon.

All of this is underpinned by having more, high quality, qualified teachers in the classroom. There are 15,500 more teachers in our schools today than in 2010, and our teachers are more qualified than ever – over 27,000 people started a postgraduate teacher training course in England this year.

Justin Tomlinson MP said: “Education is the cornerstone of everything. Ensuring young people have the skills they need to succeed in life starts with a good education. In the past eight years, we have invested more in education than ever before; build new schools & rebuilding existing sites, training & recruiting more teachers, and driving up standards. I think it’s vital that the facts are presented clearly - funding is up and so are standards. More children than ever are receiving a good or outstanding education and it thanks to the hard work of teachers, backed up by a Conservative government investing to ensure every child, no matter what their background, has the opportunity to reach their full potential.”