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Interesting that when concerns were raised for a decade that real term budget cuts and costs of marketisation were leading to larger class sizes the gov told us class sizes didn't make a difference to outcomes, and TA cuts wouldnt have an impact
1/
#edutwitter #r4today
However now they are saying that working in small groups is the way to close the Covid attainment gap.
Also interesting that there is £350m to subsidize tutoring, so sounds like schools will have to use their additional funding to pay £12 an hour for these sessions.
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£12 per hour is more than a TAs average hourly wage. I also know that one of the tutoring companies that has been lobbying government for this for weeks has been recruiting volunteers for their tutoring service. So why is gov being charged £48 per hour?
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They were pushing this for quite some time. At the same time as asking for money from government they the EEF were the ones that created the quote that 'a decade of gains for the most disadvantaged have been wiped out' in 6 weeks.
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schoolsweek.co.uk/charities-in-t…
With real terms funding cuts of £14b the extra money for education will be appreciated, however early years and FE are not included, and SEND parents are concerned they might not get the support they havent been receiving for years, Heads need profesional freedom to spend this
5/
So the devil will be in the details, let's hope their hands aren't tied. I suspect a portion of the money will be ring fenced for spending on these subsidized tutoring sessions.

Although there are good tutors, students and volunteers arent the same as trained specialists.
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Interesting the groups that are involved in lobbying and organising this initiative.
Lots of charities funded by private equity. For instance the EEF was set up by Gove with government money
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EEF have been described as a charity in little more than name, bringing in big government grants for essentially conservative education policies, selling programmes to schools targeted at the disadvantaged
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Challenge the Gap has been shown to show no noticeable impact on student outcomes. However I have seen them being quoted quite a lot lately as advising gov on most effective methods
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beib.org.uk/2017/08/evalua…
So it looks like it £350m will go to the tutoring companies and then a slice of the additional funding will then go to buying the tutoring, so that might be another £80-£90million going to the tutoring companies, with the subsidies being reduced in later years.
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Is it just me or does this feel like rather than investing in permanent qualified professional staff, reducing class size and workload the crisis is being used as a way of a few chosen suppliers to expand and corner the market on tutoring long term?
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Oh look, they are cutting the current catch up premium, for schools in the most disadvantaged areas this can be around £25k a year. Many schools will use this to pay for a specialist support staff member, so theyre diverting money to pay for their tutoring scheme
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Impetus are another group involved in lobbying the gov for the tutoring scheme they will be involved in
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Let's take a look at those private equity firms KKR, $558b in investments through strategic partnerships with hedge funds
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There's some books about how KKR operates with some interesting titles
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Terra Firma the other company responsible for the private equity that went into Impetus
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Impetus created with Goves initiative that is the EEF the WWC and then got £200m to run the DfEs WWC youth offending prevention programme.
As with the tutoring scheme, whatever happened to the idea of a tendering process?
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Fascinating, when Unions ask for more funding to prevent staff redundancies (since 2012 theres been 15k support staff job losses,many will have supported the most vulnerable and disadvantaged in small groups) we get ignored or accused of scaremongering/playing politics
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Yet charities set up by hedge funds/private equity etc seem to get cosy conversations with government that see £100s of millions released to them with almost no scrutiny. Schools and teachers get excessive accountability measures forcing more staff out, while these
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Initiatives seem to not have regular review periods with tangible targets to consider if they provide value for funding compared to just investing back into essential services with proven track records ike CAHMS, Sure Start or just more staff in schools.
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Will the £650b be distributed evenly? If so then when combined with the cuts to the Year 7 grant it will see schools in more affluent areas gain more funding. The govs proposed funding formulae is already set to deepen the divide
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Update: Education Policy Institute are less impressed. Theres a big difference between EPI and EEF who the gov prefer to listen to. As I've shown EEF are part of a network of Edu-business/Edu-'charities' that get a lots of gov money for their schemes.
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The EPI are well respected education researchers, using clear scientific methodology, they have no business links, they dont have schemes to sell, they arent trying to get a slice of public money out the education budget. They are what a real think tank should be.
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So what the EPI have seen is that all schools will get an equivalent amount and there is no ring fencing that money must be spent on the vulnerable and disadvantaged. They say the money could be far better targeted. If all the extra funding is spent..
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bbc.co.uk/news/amp/educa…
on tutoring the IFS say it will work out at around 5 students per class or 30 getting 1 hour a week.
What would I do in my secondary school with £80 per pupil?
I could have 4 specialist support staff on £20k similar to my current position offering 100 sessions/ week in groups
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of 5/6. I could have around 200 selected pupils getting 3 hours per week. Particularly working with school refusers, SEND and safeguarding/county lines students. The ones getting off rolled in disproportionate numbers.
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NB: 4 approved companies. 2 recruiting volunteers mainly uni students, other 2 pay, £20 of the £50 goes to the company.
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Keep Current with (Union) Baron Karam Bales

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