RE: Education27 Jan 2021 22:49
Barnard- totally agree about the target market of which the UK isn’t one. I think they’re targeting the right market and will do well. My investment in DEV comes from anticipating the boom that would happen in Edtech before the pandemic really hit. A wise decision and fortunate to have picked DEV....so far. Daramund....very good point about pupil premium funding although most schools will be using the lions share to support staffing structures to ensure that disadvantaged children receive high quality teaching at point of contact on a day to day basis. School have to provide a plan for funding to cover all costs which has to be approved by Governors / Trustees, and published on the school website, along with a review of funding and its impact. Both OFSTED and the DFE review the funding of schools. OFSTED during an inspection and the DFE periodically. Schools may also pay for someone to support yearly reviews to improve impact etc. Historically it is hard for schools to keep up with technology, often kids get the tech at home before the schools have it in, with the exception of disadvantaged families. Financial regulations are very very tight with regard to the Schools Financial standards and are closely monitored. The school I work in has 56% disadvantaged children and staff work incredibly hard to improve life chances for kids. Pupil Premium supports this but with significant increases recently in pension contributions, superannuation and NI contributions the pot has been getting smaller for a while. The Gov have increased funding during the pandemic but the wheels turn slowly, and this has been to provide tech for home use. Since stating disadvantaged kids will get tech to support home learning last year, kids have missed roughly 6 months of quality education. Our laptops arrived last week and we got 85. We had requests for 150, meaning we’re giving them some of the laptops that are for use in school. We don’t anticipate they will come back into school in the same condition, if at all. So schools are likely to incur additional cost to replace what they already have, at a significant cost again. We give musical instruments to kids some of which have ended up in the local pawn shop....despite parents signing terms of agreement, which are virtually impossible to enforce. Some parents have turned down laptops for home learning because they either don’t want to take responsibility for it, fear it will get broken, or just because they don’t want to do home learning. It really is tough times in education at the moment and teachers are doing an incredible job adapting to a new way of working. I’m sure there are cases of PP spending not well spent, but the general consensus is that funding is reducing in real terms. Anyway...I apologise for deviating from the DEV discussion. DEV will do well and it’s a compelling story.....one I’m happy to be involved in....touching wood and holding a rabbits foot, I’m glad to be in one doing well. Good luck to us all
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