It was scary at first, but we have all got used to managing our budgets. There has never been enough money, of course, it is as if a kindly but out-of-touch uncle sent us a fiver every birthday for a jolly good feed. Hold the champagne and caviar.
Recently uncle has developed a generous streak, or perhaps he has just noticed how skinny we are looking. He has thrown in an extra couple of quid, but only on condition that we spend it on green vegetables and prunes for afters.
Much of our schools’ money no longer comes through the LMS Fair Funding mechanism but via the Standards Fund. Earmarked cash for the reduction of class sizes, the infamous booster class, literacy and numeracy training all by-passed both LEAs and governors. The Green Paper suggests money for the new teachers’ pay-scales and for the proposed army of classroom assistants will come the same way. Rolls of crisp new fivers turn up, with strict instructions to spend the dosh instantly on books or computer equipment.
I appreciate the generosity, even applaud some of the objectives, but this is not local management of schools as we knew it, and I am not sure I like that at all.
