Budget 2015/16

Prospective parents will have once again received a breakdown of the school’s results, DfE statistics and budget for the 2015/16 academic year in the latest round of glossy, and undoubtedly expensive, prospectuses. Compared to the one we reported on two years ago, this latest version included a startling lack of boastful graphs showing that beloved 5-year-trend, which wasn't accurate two years ago and certainly isn't now. Instead, a few discreet tables showing the results of the last exam season, the GCSEs only compared with last year’s (worse) results, and the A-Level results entirely without comparison to previous, more successful results.

This time the school managed to balance their budget, showing that they too can learn that 50% of maths isn't imagination, albeit with a few funds missing. We have in many articles questioned exactly how and why the school chose to spend £55k on Attendance in the last budget, and come the 2015/16 breakdown, this attendance budget failed to show up (very funny. -Ed). No doubt, many of the school’s other poor financial decisions (RRSA, AfA, ALPs to name but a few) will remain, and more are yet to come, but £55k going back into educating students is not to be sniffed at.

One thing we did notice was the £500,000 pounds of the school budget that had been put towards the new build. Whilst it is a nice change for the school to be diverting funds towards something worthwhile which (might) better students’ educations, it does seem to be a lot of money for no say in how the build, or even the site, is orchestrated, and a restricted control (even by the Management’s standard) of the finer details of the buildings upon completion (the best we've heard so far is the possibility of lockers).