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25 Jan 99

Additional £1.5million for Poole Education

The Borough of Poole has achieved success in its bid for extra grants from the Department of Education and Employment Standards Fund. The grants are available for the development of education provision and the Borough has been successful in a record number of categories.

The largest of the grants, over £500,000, has been awarded for school improvement. This will help local schools to raise standards through the continued training of school staff to enable them to meet agreed targets and support school developments. The funding will also provide a wide variety of courses and replacement staff whilst teachers are updating their skills.

Other major allocations include:

· £179,000 for Information Technology provision and Internet access under the National Grid for Learning
· £174,000 for the National Literacy Strategy to provide specialist advisers, training in new techniques and additional classroom resources
· £150,000 to support provision for pupils with special educational needs
· £119,000 for the introduction of the new Numeracy Strategy through the development of new training techniques and provision of specialist advisers

A number of other smaller, but equally welcome, grants have been given for areas such as early years' training, summer literacy schools, drug prevention, support for the education of travellers' children and headteacher qualifications.

The Chairman, Cllr Annette Brooke stressed the benefits the additional funding would bring: "Many of the important initiatives which have been introduced since we took over the education service in 1997 can now be further developed. The additional support that our hard-working staff will receive should help in our continued drive to raise standards."

Jeff Hart, Chief Adviser, Schools Advice and Support, was also pleased with the range of grants won: "We have been successful in nearly every category available which is a remarkable achievement. This confirms the government's recognition of our determination to help schools move forward. The additional funding is an ideal complement to the grants we gained last year from the Teacher Training Agency to set up longer courses for teachers."

Jeff Hart, Chief Adviser, School Advice & Support Service (01202) 687046