Fair Funding for Rural Schools

This week in Parliament, Therese spoke up for fair funding of Suffolk education in a debate on the future of rural schools.

Speaking in Westminster Hall, Therese outlined how she was impressed at the amount of small rural schools that are able to survive in Suffolk and praised the County Council for trying to keep as many schools open as possible.

She said that it was important to support schools with low roll numbers and one way schools have been able to remain viable is by sharing head teachers, which Peasenhall and Middleton schools have done so well.

Therese pressed the Minister for a fair funding formula and the implication rural transport has on this.

She said "I hope that the Minister recognizes the challenges of sparse population, which include the costs of school transport. There definitely seems to be a bias towards urban schools, which is perhaps tradition given the more conventional aspects of social deprivation and the indices."

She added "People in urban places are often surprised at how many of our small rural schools have upwards of 40% of pupils receiving free school meals, which reflects the fact that poverty is spread throughout the country and not concentrated in urban areas. Rural schools should get a fair share of the funding."

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