Friday, 25 October 2013.
Dear Mr O’Dowd,
We are writing in correspondence to ‘changes to how schools get their money’
We, the School Council of Castlewellan Primary School, received your letter and we have some very strong points and views about it.
Firstly, we think that it’s unfair using free school meals to measure funding as in poor areas such as some parts of Belfast the majority of the schools will take free school meals and in not so poor areas there will be less children taking free school meals.
Secondly, we think that it also isn’t right giving extra money to schools that have children in foster care or children with split parents, as this doesn’t always affect their schoolwork. We have a couple of children in our school who have split parents and foster care but most of them are doing really well in school. It seems to us if you really want to help them you should give money or their families/carers and make sure they feel safe. We are not saying that they don’t need help but not ALL of them do.
Thirdly, instead of using free school meals to measure funding, why not measure according to the % of the children with special needs. Not just special needs as in MLD/ special units but SEN children who find some subjects hard in mainstream classes. There could be a school that has a number of students that need help but the schools can’t help them because they don’t have enough money and now they are losing 1000’s of pounds. It would help some children in our school if they had a classroom assistant but aren’t able to have one as we don’t have enough money and now we are going to lose a LOT more. If we lose what you are proposing, we may have to drop a classroom assistant and our class ( a composite yr 5,6,7) wouldn’t be able to run as smoothly without Laura.
Fourthly, we think that you should definitely make sure that the schools use the money to help children learn as you are taking 1000’s of pounds from 80% of the schools. It is important that they spend the money on what they are given it for.
Finally, some children’s education might not be as good because the school does not have enough money. Taking money away from 80% of the schools and giving it only to 20% of the schools is not fair. Small schools will suffer.
We may only be children and our opinions may not mean as much to you as the other members of the government or principals but we care about our education and other’s education. We are passionate about this and want it to be fair for everyone.
The School Council of Castlewellan Primary School.