Funding Sources for State Schools

Raising Standards in maths is a worthwhile and enviable goal that schools are under increasing pressure to achieve. Schools need to balance the investment required to gain meaningful results, with the constraints of limited budgets and multiple priorities.

Fortunately the investment and commitment required to significantly raise standards in maths through Maths-Whizz can be achieved by tapping into multiple funding sources that may be available to you making this a realistic and achievable goal for schools.

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Maths budget
Budget for underachieving and gifted and talented
ICT – Harnessing Technology grants,
Devolved Formula Capital
Professional development
School PTA

Maths Budget

The maths budget is typically in the hands of the Maths Coordinator, who has the challenging task of using this very limited budget, usually amounting to as little as a few hundred or up to a few thousand pounds, in a manner that improves the school’s maths provision.

Many schools use this budget towards a subscription to Maths-Whizz Teachers’ Resource. This is delivered as a whole school wide site license, priced at £1000 pa, and is used by teachers and students across the school in whole class and/or computer suites. Feedback from the 4000 UK schools that use Maths-Whizz Teachers’ Resource confirms that many form teachers find it invaluable in supporting their delivery of the maths curriculum to their students in an engaging and educationally powerful way.

Budget for underachieving and gifted and talented

Depending on your school and your LA you may find there are significant pockets of funding or grants available to your school to address underachieving and gifted and talented students. It is worth checking with your head teacher, who in turn may check with your LA, as often the available money is not transparent until the LA reaches a deadline by which the money has to be spent.

Different LAs have different pockets of funding and grants ranging from “Narrowing the Gap” to specific funds for “Extending the gifted and talented”. By finding out what budgets are available to your school, you can make informed decisions in a timely manner.

Applying for these additional funds is often successful as the criteria that are typically supported include personalised learning, home/school links and parental engagement, all of which are fully ticked by Maths-Whizz Tutoring Plus.

State schools often use these funds to purchase subscriptions for Maths-Whizz Tutoring Plus for particular students that would most benefit from personalised attention. By ordering a minimum of 50 student logins the cost will be just £30 per student for a whole year of personalised tuition, allowing your school to take a major step towards addressing the underachieving and gifted and talented in a highly effective and affordable way.

Harnessing Technology Grants

The Harnessing Technology Grants have replaced the e-Learning Credits, which expired in 2008.

The Harnessing Technology Strategy sets the broader context for local authority and school spending on ICT.

The Strategy aims to support national education and skills priorities by building an education and skills system that has the capacity to harness technology effectively for the benefit of learners.

The larger proportion of the Harnessing Technology grant is expected to be devolved from your Local Authority to your school though this varies across different regions, which means you may have specific funding available to you for Maths-Whizz.

Maths-Whizz Tutoring Plus for Schools fits exactly the core goals of the Harnessing Technology strategy:

upgrade schools' broadband connectivity bandwidths appropriate to particular circumstances and needs to support pupils' learning
implementing ways to enable learners to store and access their work, and related information and resources on a secure website. This will enable teachers to share resources and view individual progress more easily
systems to achieve better use and more integration of information to support learning
parental reporting
high quality digital learning resources

Professional Development

Teachers that are well informed who know how to schedule the recommended usage levels for students on Maths-Whizz, view online reporting and who are able to engage parental support get the best results out of Maths-Whizz and raise standards of maths in their school.

Since introducing a range of professional development programs earlier in 2009, nearly all schools that have subscribed to Maths-Whizz Teachers’ Resource or Tutoring Plus have requested professional development in the form of onsite training or through an annual service arrangement providing ongoing support and professional development.

The difference in end results in those schools that have received training and development is enormous, and schools are typically able to support their teachers through specific professional development budgets that may be available within or to your school.

School PTA

Increasingly we are seeing some schools, particularly existing Maths-Whizz users, engage their school PTA to source funding for providing students with online tutoring through Maths-Whizz Tutoring Plus.

Whizz Education has extensive experience working with schools and their parents, to work together to source the finance in an efficient way and then engage teachers and parents to apply best practice and gain the best potential results for your school.

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