Today's Education in the media blog looks at the number of children who were offered one of their top three school places this year plus how we are distributing core school funding.
School places
Yesterday, Thursday 14 June, the department published data outlining what percentage of children were offered one of their top three choices of school places for this September.
This year, 91 per cent of pupils were offered their first choice of primary school and 97.7 per cent were offered a place at one of their top three, while 82.1 per cent of pupils were offered their first choice of secondary school and 93.8 per cent were offered a place at one of their top three.
In addition to this we are pleased that the proportion of primary school pupils reaching the expected standards in reading, writing and maths at Key Stage 2 went up 8 percentage points last year while for the same group the attainment gap has narrowed by 10.5 per cent since 2011.
This has been reported by the Times, the Sun and I News.
School Standards Minister Nick Gibb said:
We want every family to have a good school on their doorstep and to give parents greater choice when applying to the school that is right for their child. More children will take up a place at their top choice of primary school this September and over eight out of ten secondary pupils secured a place at their top choice of secondary school on national offer day.
We are improving education for every child by helping all great schools to grow. We have created 825,000 new school places since 2010 and are investing £7 billion to create even more school places.
This will help us to build on improvements already made and the fact that there are 1.9 million more children in good or outstanding schools today compared to 2010.
St Edmund Campion Catholic Primary School
Today, Friday 15 June, the Mirror, Mail, Sun have all reported that St Edmund Campion Catholic Primary School that has asked parents to make donations on an ‘Amazon wish list’ for essentials such as toilet paper.
We provide schools with funding to buy the resources that they need – by 2020, core funding will rise to a record £43.5 billion – the highest ever and 50 per cent more per pupil in real terms than in 2000.
We also have information, tools, training and guidance to help with schools’ financial planning and resource management available on gov.uk.
We are clear that if requesting voluntary contributions, the school must make clear to parents they are under no obligation to contribute.
A Department for Education spokesperson:
Core school funding will rise to a record £43.5 billion by 2020 – the highest ever - and 50% more per pupil in real terms than in 2000. In fact, this year a typical primary class will get £130,000. We are giving every local authority more money for every school in 2018-19 and 2019-20, with schools in Maidenhead and Windsor gaining £2 million overall once the national funding formula is implemented in full.
We are absolutely clear that no parent can be required to make financial contributions to a school and all schools must make clear that any requests for donations are voluntary.
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