The remaining four female bantams are likely to be going at the weekend and I have a potential home for the female chicks once they are older. So I am near to getting back to normal, but am absolutely resolved that this situation must never happen again. Changes to the chicken run may be possible so that they have a bigger area and needn’t be let out, but I’m aware that they will destroy the vegetation within days, however big a run they have. I’ll see. The cockerel will have to go, that’s certain, one way or another – he’s quite handsome, if I can find anyone who wants him, but I know that’s fairly unlikely.
I haven’t been out all day, except for feeding the animals (lovely Rose kindly filled my coal scuttles) and I haven’t even brushed my hair, let alone put in my contact lens. I’ve done a fair bit of work and written some letters, I’ve only been moderately idle. Not that I am unhappy to be idle, I enjoy doing nothing.
The school’s auditors have passed the accounts without qualification again, thanks to our fine financial manager and I’ve written to congratulate her. They – the auditors – are coming in on Thursday to present the accounts to the finance committee, so I must spend the evening reading them, so that I can make intelligent comments.
No, really, I can. I know quite a lot about it, sad old git that I am.
Some of you may have seen in the papers that the government has finally woken up to the fact that funding for schools varies wildly county by county and they acknowledge that, even bearing in mind that some deprived areas need more money, it varies to an unfair extent. Having done a bit of research of my own and checked figures with the school finance office, it’s even more unfair than I’d realised.
We receive £4,100 per student. The average sum that schools across England and Wales receive is £6,300 and some get over £10,000, with extra money for disadvantaged students in addition to that. I know of schools that can give all students free uniforms, free meals and iPads, amongst other benefits, because they have ample money. If my school received even the average amount, we would have £2,500,000 more next year, on top of our £6,000,000 budget. As it is, we have to cut costs every year.
Education is not “business” – and public health care isn’t also – I so wish that those responsible would finally understand it ! Both public sectors can’t be run “like a company”.
Well, we are an independent, albeit publicly funded, academy school and we have to work within a budget. But we have many costs imposed on us and numerous requirements, there isn’t the freedom we were promised. And the disparity in funding is getting increasingly hard to manage.