School Funding: East Anglia
Debate between Lord Bellingham and Mike Gapes(5 years, 3 months ago)
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Mike Gapes (in the Chair)
Before the hon. Gentleman goes further, I should have said that the question is that this House has considered school funding in East Anglia.
Sir Henry Bellingham
Thank you, Mr Gapes. I made exactly the same mistake when I was chairing in here the other day, so I have every sympathy.
Once again, I congratulate the hon. Member for Norwich South. He and I have worked closely on this agenda. We may differ in our outlook on various matters concerning education, but we have a shared sense of complete and utter respect for the teaching profession in Norfolk, and for the hard-working headteachers and teachers in schools across the county; they have an incredibly important task.
This debate is timely because, as the hon. Gentleman pointed out, we have had an ongoing dialogue with Educate Norfolk, which is a group of secondary and primary headteachers. Those meetings have been excellent and have given MPs first-class briefings on most aspects of schooling in Norfolk. As my colleagues from Norfolk and elsewhere in East Anglia will know, one of Educate Norfolk’s consistent demands was for more funding—not just in penny packets, but as a significant uplift in school funding.
I slightly disagree with the hon. Member for Norwich South on this point. We have a new Prime Minister who has a new agenda and has his priorities, and he has made it clear that school funding is one of those priorities.