THE Government’s commitment to diversity in education is beyond question. Since 1997 it has presided over a huge expansion of the specialist school programme, as well as creating various new types of school including beacons and city academies.

Nor are there any signs that ministers or their advisers are running out of creative energy as they prepare to launch advanced specialist colleges, advanced beacon schools and launch pad schools.

The extra cash that all these badges attract already represents up to 10 per cent of some schools’ budgets. And it will become a significant proportion of total education funding if the Government meets its target of increasing the number of specialist schools to 1,500 by 2005.

Secondary schools that fail to qualify for any special status or grant and do not come under under the Excellence in Cities initiative or one its many offshoots will then become a minority, according to the Secondary Heads Association.

“We reckon that, come 2005, about 40 per cent of secondary schools will have to survive on the basic funding and we are therefore very anxious that that should be as generous as possible,” said Peter Downes, the Association’s funding consultant.

Others argue that, far from being unfair to their “bog standard” counterparts, schools with special status are bringing benefits to the whole education service.

“It’s changed the culture of schools and made them more open and willing to share best practice and that should improve standards in all schools,” says Russell Moon, head of the Philip Morant school in Colchester, which uses its pound;30,000 beacon funding to support a local school improvement consortium.

In the current financial year this technology school has topped up its pound;4 million budget with pound;175,000 from the specialist school programme, and with smaller grants for offering training under the Graduate Teacher Programme, and various other projects.

A further pound;45,000 that came with a School Achievement Award was divided between all teaching and non-teaching staff. In addition, the school has notched up an array of awards that bring kudos rather than cash. These include the Charter Mark award for excellence, which it has won three times, a Sportsmark with distinction and a Schools Curriculum award.

Achieving specialist or beacon status seems to spur schools on to seek these other awards. Lancaster girls grammar school, for example, one of the first technology colleges to get off the ground in 1994, wanted to show that as well as specialising in science and technology it offered a good all-round education.

That led headteacher Pam Barber to go for the Arts Council’s Artsmark Gold award and the International School award from the Central Bureau. The school now has so many different kitemarks and badges that it is finding it hard to redesign its notepaper to fit them all in.

Another strong contender for the title of most badged and labelled school is Horton Lodge community special school in Staffordshire. A beacon school since last September, it has also won a National Curriculum award, a Basic Skills Quality Mark and a string of other awards.

“The more we’ve gained the more it’s boosted our staff’s morale and that’s improved our provision,” says headteacher Caroline Coles. “Success breeds success.”