When the Conservatives lost their majority in Theresa May’s snap election, squeezed school funding was cited as one of the key issues that helped shape the outcome.

In the weeks that followed, it became a political imperative for ministers to take action, and in July, Justine Greening announced she had found £1.3 billion for schools from elsewhere in her departmental budget.

As Tes went to press, the impact of that money was about to be made clear, with the release of new details of a national funding formula.

Amid continuing reports on the financial pressures on schools, the education secretary insists she “would never be complacent” about funding. But she insists that other factors are just as important: “Investment is absolutely critical, but so is having the right strategy.”

Greening is also keen that any extra funding goes to the right places. “The key is a steady shift in the DfE towards evidence-driven investment that is then targeted at schools where we know it can really make the biggest difference,” she says.

When challenged about recent heart-rending stories of the effects of the funding squeeze at the chalkface, including one head who was forced to ask retired teachers to work for free, as well as claims that funding pressures are fuelling rocketing numbers of exclusions (bit.ly/ExclusionsRocket), Greening acknowledges the difficulties schools face.

“I have been a school governor in the past for 14 years, so I do know about the discussions that governing bodies have around how to make best use out of the money that is available, and I know often they are not always easy discussions,” she says.

“But we are putting record levels of funding into our education system; we have now managed to make sure in the final years of the spending review that pupil funding can be maintained in real terms.”

In the past, the “record levels of funding” mantra has caused headteachers’ eyes to roll and a feeling among some that ministers either “don’t get it” or “don’t want to get it”.

“I would never be complacent about the levels of school funding,” Greening retorts.

“What I’m saying is that we all recognise that investment is part of the strategy, but critically, how you then make sure that (a) that gets to the front line, which is what we were doing with the £1.3 billion, and (b) that we have schools that can really get the most out of that investment, that really know what works.”

She is keen to trumpet the £1.3 billion boost for schools over the next two years, along with the confirmation that this government is finally implementing the national funding formula - a long-promised policy to address the wildly varying levels of funding that similar schools in different locations currently receive.

Following July’s announcement of the extra money, the respected Institute for Fiscal Studies confirmed the cash would ensure that per-pupil funding would be frozen between 2017 and 2019, but said it still amounted to a real-terms 4.6 per cent cut per pupil between 2015 and 2019.

Geoff Barton, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders, says: “I don’t think anybody, either within the department or outside, feels it was sufficient. We have joined up with other unions this week because additional funding needs to be there. All we are hearing from union members is that they are continuing to have to make incredibly difficult decisions about class sizes or making people redundant.”

But Greening is clear that while money matters, it is far from being the whole story. She points to Sats, GCSEs and A-level results in England. “You are really starting to see the fruits of all the reform and school improvement now coming through in terms of the outcomes that young people are getting, and that, actually, it is as much as anything about having the right strategy,” she says. “And that’s why what you are now seeing is a real divergence in the United Kingdom.”

Greening criticises standards in Wales and Scotland, contrasting them with England, and adds: “So investment is absolutely critical, but so is having the right strategy.”

‘Quiet excellence’

“Evidence” is a word that crops up frequently in her discussion about that strategy and how funding is targeted.

A week ago, she announced £20 million of funding for 56 school-led projects designed to use local expertise to tackle specific challenges in their areas.

“I have been very much on the hunt for the quiet excellence that is there all over our system,” she says.

“We are a government that has gone around the world to make sure that we have understood the very best teaching that is out there, and Shanghai maths has been something that has resulted from that.

“But there is a huge amount of excellence in teaching around England and I have been determined since I came into this job to seek that out and to make sure that we spread it more effectively around the system.”