Category: Key Stage 1 News

A report has shown that London needs up to 50,000 new school places over the next seven years to cope with the demand

A baby boom and the effect of recession causing parents to opt for state schools rather than private has put a strain on the education system.  The problem is that the money to provide the much needed places is not available.

Children’s Secretaru Ed Balls is to pledge 100m to help local authorities around England to create 15,000 primary school places to help local authorities facing the pressure of surges in demand.  He had already pledged 200m.

What are the implications of this for parents and children?  Local authorities will do their utmost to fill places in all schools.  More and more parents  find themselves being offered

Early planning, including  moving to a different location, choosing state as apposed to private educate  are some of the strategies parents now employ to obtain a good education..

The Mail states that Councils are contemplating measures such as ‘transporting very young children to schools several miles from their homes and failing to guarantee places for siblings at the same school’, according to the report.

Meanwhile, parents abandoning aspirations of sending their offspring to private schools have also contributed to rising demand.

Some pupils are temporarily being taught in school libraries or church halls because schools lack space.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1226954/Migration-credit-crunch-fuel-primary-school-places-crisis.html#ixzz0bxr5XYZO

According to an article in Rapidonline, nearly 1,500 primary schools in England have failed to reach expected numeracy and literacy standards in (Sats).
The floor targets of 55 percent set by the government are for pupils to achieve level 4 in sats for mathematics and English by the time they leave primary school.  This year 1472 schools did not meet that target.  This is an increase from 1359 in 2008
On 4^th December Ed Balls announced a National Challenge-style initiative to encourage those schools to improve the levels of numeracy and literacy among their 11-year-old students.  More pressure is being put on local authorities to meet this challenge as Schools minister Diana Johnson stated that the government wants as many children as possible to leave primary education with a secure grasp of the basic skills in numeracy and literacy.