SCHOOLS ON THE ISLE OF WIGHT TO GET £9MILLION FUNDING BOOST

Nearly £9million of extra funding is heading towards Isle of Wight schools. It comes as the Isle of Wight Council approves how funding from the Department for Education (DfE) will be distributed across schools. Overall, the Government has allocated more than £123million to the Island, to provide care for young children in early years, education at schools and provision for those with special educational needs and disabilities. It is £8,913,000 more than last year — when the Island got £114.1million to spend on education — and will increase the amount of funding schools get per pupil. In 2023/24, schools received £3,442 per primary-aged pupil; £4,853 for Key Stage 3 pupils and £5,470 for Key Stage 4. Now, that will rise to £3,614 per primary-aged pupil; £5,096 for Key Stage 3 and £5,744 for Key Stage 4 pupils. The allocations are worked out through a national and local funding formula to share the budget among schools. After that is down to individual schools to make their own spending decisions. The increase in cash has come through additional funding for hourly rates of early years provisions, more money for special educational needs pupils and changes in pupils numbers. However, the council has said, like other authorities, it is experiencing serious financial pressures from insufficient levels of high needs funding, which goes towards special educational need provisions. To help reduce the pressure, the Island’s School Forum — which is made of representatives from all schools — has agreed to move nearly £450,000 across from the main block of funding to schools to the high needs one. From the £123million, £26.8million will be paid to academies and post-16 high-needs providers. From 2027, the government has said it would provide the funding directly to schools — cutting out the council as a middleman. When that does happen, the council has said there may be financial turbulence for schools.