Fight for better funding gathers pace with 'Hands Up for Herefordshire' campaign (From Hereford Times)

Fight for better funding gathers pace with 'Hands Up for Herefordshire' campaign

7:00am Wednesday 24th February 2010 in

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THE fight for better funding of Herefordshire’s schools is going hands-on, with a demonstration designed to make an impression.

Hundreds of handprints from school pupils across the county are being collected to push Whitehall toward a change of mind.

All the prints will be put up at selected sites in Hereford and the market towns in a mass display planned for next month to show what Hands Up for Herefordshire can do.

As previously reported by the Hereford Times, the county is the third lowest funded area of England for education and is already losing up to £1 million in such funding each year as pupil numbers – by which Whitehall calculates schools funding – plummet. Hands Up for Herefordshire is the campaign to close the county’s funding gap and the hands-on demonstration next month goes directly to those now stuck in it – the school pupils themselves.

Every school is invited to create colourful handprint cards to be collected for countywide display as a symbol for an ongoing fairer funding petition.

Behind the scenes a county delegation – including the two MPs, headteachers, and governors – has already had a hint from the Government of changes to the funding system.

Although the delegation did not come away with much detail, Vernon Coaker, minister for schools and learners, did say factors such as sparsity, additional educational needs, deprivation, and area adjustments could be factored into the funding formula from 2011.

But even that apparent concession came with a warning from the minister that there would still be “winners and losers” with all local authorities having good arguments as to why they should get more.

“Collectively we outlined our hopes that future funding would align Herefordshire with average levels of funding rather than remaining one of the poorest,”

said Sharon Menghini, Herefordshire Council’s director of children’s services.

“We are already starting to see the quality of education being affected by reduced funding and are concerned that we have more schools needing local authority support and a growing number in Ofsted categories,”

she said.

The very real threat of school closures was highlighted only last week with the news that a consulation process is under way into the future of Dilwyn Primary School. As the county’s smallest school with 31 pupils, Dilwyn could soon be closed.