Welshpool High School one of the poorest funded in Wales
Last week, an organisation was set up to try and raise extra money for the school to pay for items such as library books, prompting us to wade through the financial data to discover that only Crickowell is worse off than Welshpool in Powys.
Out of the 183 secondary schools in the whole of Wales, Welshpool (£5,335 per pupil) is the 11th worst funded, with the school receiving almost £1,000 less per pupil than Bro Caereinion (£6,339) down the road in Llanfair.
The problem was first made public by best-selling author Lee Child who visited the school prior to the summer holidays and was horrified to discover the school library’s annual budget was just £100, with volunteers required to run it.
The Jack Reacher author made a substantial donation to buy books, and called on education bosses to boost the school’s budget.
The school is not permitted to comment on budget issues, but its supervisory body, Powys County Council, explained how the complex funding works in the statement below.
Here, we have the lowest funded schools in Wales up to Welshpool in 11th.
Wales lowest funded schools (per pupil)
1. Corpus Christi Catholic High School (Cardiff) £4,994
2. Crickhowell HS (Powys) £5,083
3. Cardiff High School (Cardiff) £5,130
4. Castell Alun (Flintshire) £5,144
5. St Richard Gwyn (Vale of Glamorgan) £5,160
6. Stanwell HS (Vale of Glamorgan) £5,189
7. Dwr-Y-Felin (Neath Port Talbot) £5,262
8. Olchfa High School (Swansea) £5,269
9. Bishop Vaughan (Swansea) £5,294
10. St Joseph’s (Newport) £5,325
11. Welshpool High School (Powys) £5,335
Selected other Powys schools
Ysgol Bro Caereinion (all through school) £6,339
Ysgol Llanfyllin (all through school) £5,890
Newtown High School £6,068
Llanidloes High School £5,879
Brecon High School £6,589 (highest in Powys)
A spokesperson for Powys County Council explains the funding process:
“The challenging public sector finance environment is also impacting school budgets. Over a decade of austerity was followed by the COVID pandemic and then the cost of living crisis due to soaring inflation which impacted on school and council costs as well. Schools across Wales are facing extremely challenging budgets where the increase in funding is not keeping pace with the increase in costs.
“The school funding formulae used to determine each school’s budget share is developed with schools and each school’s governing body is consulted when any changes are proposed.
“Both the new and former funding formulae for secondary phase schools in Powys met the regulatory requirements set out in the School Funding (Wales) Regulations 2010, which stipulate that at least 70% of the funding must be distributed based on pupil numbers.
“Both the previous and the new funding formulae are designed to provide equitable shares of funding to schools based on the relative need to spend of those schools to enable equitable provision for all learners in Powys.
“The funding is distributed on the basis of their pupil numbers, while also taking into account the individual characteristics of each school. The main component of the funding formula is the per pupil funding for different age groups which is the same for all schools.
“Differences in overall per pupil funding will be due to the other components of the funding formula. There is a component for ALN, which is based on the number of learners with ALN at each school.
“The third component reflects the individual characteristics of the school, and includes premises funding (based on the area of the school building). It also includes top ups for those schools that have to deliver education to smaller groups, which increases their relative need to spend, such as small schools or dual stream schools.
“Crickhowell High school has the lowest funding per pupil in secondary school in Powys as it has the highest number of pupils, all per pupil funding data is available publicly.”
See for yourself, the Delegated School Budgets per pupil, by sector (£) (gov.wales)
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