In Crawley and throughout the country, school pupils have been starting their GCSEs over the last week. My very best wishes to all taking exams.
Students have been working incredibly hard, as have teachers and other members of school staff. Thanks to their work to encourage and inspire local pupils, we’ve seen 37 more schools in West Sussex rated good or outstanding compared with 2010.
There’s more to do of course; one of the issues I continue to pursue with the Department for Education is the importance of strong early development for children’s future life chances. Too many children still don’t reach the expected level of development at age 5, and while I welcome the narrowing of the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers it’s clear that more needs to be done.
Towards the other end of the education system, new initiatives such as the Advanced Maths Premium will see schools receive £600 for every additional pupil who takes an advanced Maths qualification. This will go to help ensure that more of our young people can be better equipped for the careers which lie ahead of them.
From September, an extra £600 premium will be available to schools and colleges for each additional pupil taking the one-year AS Maths or the Core Maths qualification, which could mean £1,200 for each additional pupil who takes the two-year A level in Maths or Further Maths.
At Thomas Bennett Community College approximately a quarter of the school’s budget is being spent re-paying a PFI loan that the then Labour government forced on Crawley in 2004 for its rebuilding works without any alternative funding methods allowed. Last week I raised this in the House of Commons and received a commitment from the Education Secretary to meet regarding this matter which is something I’ll continue to pursue.
Henry Smith MP