East Cambs head teachers quiz Michael Gove on fairer funding for Cambridgeshire

Catherine Jenkinson-Dix, of Ely College, Chris Terry, from Witchford Village College, Dr Carin Taylor, from Soham Village College and Kate Evans from Bottisham Village College were all invited to a meeting in Westminster.

Parliamentary candidate for SE Cambs Lucy Frazer and Sir Jim Paice were also in attendance, along with Philip Hodgson, chairman of the Cambridgeshire Schools Forum.

According to grant figures, Cambridgeshire has been receiving the lowest school block funding per pupil out of all of the 151 local authorities.

On March 13 this year, the Government announced an additional £20.5m for Cambridgeshire schools for the year 2015/16.

However, the funding formula beyond 2017 has not yet been set and the meeting was arranged to ensure that Cambridgeshire’s voice is heard on this issue at the highest level before any decision is made on future funding allocations.

During the meeting, Michael Gove confirmed it was his Government’s intention to introduce a national funding formula in the next spending review that will ensure fairer funding across the country.

Sir Jim said: “The cost of living in Cambridgeshire is high, and local people have a reasonable expectation that their schools be well funded. Yet funding for the county’s schools has been languishing at the bottom of the table for a long time.”

“We have also seen high rates of growth in Cambridgeshire and migration from other parts of the UK, as well as from abroad. All this puts further pressure on our schools.”

Conservative parliamentary candidate Lucy Frazer commented: “I have been into many schools in the area. We are lucky to have some of the most skilled head teachers in the country.”

“To give our students the best start in life, I will be fighting continuously to try to ensure that Cambridgeshire schools get the best possible funding so our children have the brightest possible future.”