Nick Ferrari quizzes Gavin Williamson on how useful extra school funding will be
20 July 2020, 08:42
Gavin Williamson explains how extra school funding will be spent
As the government gives schools an extra £650million, Nick Ferrari asked Education Secretary Gavin Williamson on how much difference £80 per pupil will make.
Most schools in England will get an extra 3% of funding per pupil from next year. But Nick Ferrari pointed out that only means £80 per pupil, so questioned how much difference it would actually make.
Asked where the money should be spent, Mr Williamson said: "The money is there to be really targeted at the educational needs of children.
"We've looked closely at a lot of the evidence on how you help children catch up when they've suffered loss in not being in school. One of the things that evidence pointed to is small groups of children being tutored, being supported in areas they are most weak in really does have the benefit and that's what we're hoping to deliver.
"We've given schools guidance on how best to spend their money. They've got the freedom to spent it how they wish, but we'd really encourage them to look at how they do this small group tuition to support children."
Nick then suggested: "It's an extra £80 per pupil, it's not going to shoot the lights out, is it Mr Williamson? £80?"
He responded: "What it can do is give schools the extra resource to be be able to flex their staffing."
Watch the clip at the top of the page.
