In this week’s column, I want to praise the hard work of all our teachers here in Somerset and that is why I am so pleased to see the Wells constituency directly benefitting from a huge investment in school funding.
Since I became the MP for Wells back in 2015, I have consistently campaigned for fairer funding in our schools as I felt we had been left behind here in the West Country.
Now, as part of the biggest funding boost for schools in a decade, this constituency has been allocated more than £58million as part of the National Funding Formula for 2020-21. This significant commitment from the Government is just the start of a three-year funding plan which duly focuses on ensuring areas which have been historically under-funded no longer suffer – like Somerset.
This extra money – which on average equates to £4,377 per pupil in our primary schools and £5,157 per pupil in our secondary schools – will be available from April and will rise in line with inflation.
I have spent a lot of time with teachers across the constituency over the past four years and I know just how hard they work to ensure our students have the very best education. I hope they can continue to achieve excellence with this much-needed cash injection.
We have come a long way since 2015 in terms of education in this country – and our county – but of course there is still work to do. I look forward to working closely with our schools’ leadership teams to determine their priorities and how this money can be used effectively so each student has access to the best possible education and crucial resources. Somerset is a brilliant place to grow up and it is important we support our teachers so they can continue to inspire young people and are - crucially - not overworked.
