The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

The Optimus blog

The blog that inspires leaders in the UK education sector

Funding

Sue Birchall

The May education philosophy and the SBM

The start of the new school year again brings fresh announcements from the government on the direction of education. The prime minister, Theresa May, announced her wish to increase access to grammar school education for our young people. Theresa May's ideas of a meritocratic education system based...
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John Viner

National funding: new broom, old cobwebs

For most school business managers, the most immediate and urgent concerns will surround funding and it’s important to appreciate that nothing is going to change in the immediate short term. What, you may ask, happened to the much-vaunted National Funding Formula promised from 2017? Details of the...
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Sue Birchall

SBMs, don't look back in anger

From budgets and academisation to the NASBM professional standards, here’s what we can learn from the last twelve months but also what we can expect looking forward. As we broke up for the summer the announcement that the government was to honour the promise of a national funding formula (NFF) came...
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Alex Masters

The early years funding challenge

The DfE’s decision to introduce an early years pupil premium was welcomed with open arms. But with opportunity comes challenge, as content lead Alex Masters discovers Did you know that 90% of all brain development occurs by the age of five ? Did you also know that recent research shows a 19-month...
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Alex Masters

Evidencing impact: the million-dollar question

It’s the ‘million-dollar question’ that you hear across schools today: ‘What is the best way to evidence the impact of Pupil Premium Funding?’ I’ve been talking to a lot of educational professionals recently, and the same concerns arise: not only are people struggling to close the gap between...
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Tom Kerslake

Early years in 2015: what lies ahead?

Last year proved to be an uneasy time for the early years sector, and an extremely turbulent year for education in general. From a range of concerns about nursery funding and provision, to Michael Wilshaw’s ‘unsure start’ debacle , the sector certainly experienced its own tremors last year. The...
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