Good News for the Local Out of School Club

I have just returned from a couple of days camping with the local Llandrindod Wells 1st Cub and Scout Troup. It was a fantastic few days to celebrate the centenary of scouting. However I stray from the point.......

On my return I have had a letter from the Awards for All Awards sponsored by the Lottery Fund, to tell me that I have successfully applied for £4900 for the club. Hooray.... this is wonderful news. Over the past few weeks I have been frantically applying for all sorts of grants for the school child care club and the school so they can begin or continue with projects, which without grant aid they would never be able to consider. Two weeks ago we had news from Powys County Council that we had been awarded £2000 in capital revenue funding for the child care club, and also, sadly, because another local play scheme closed it;s doors for the last time we were given all their cash funds in accordance with the Charity Commissions ruling, a boost of £6000. Prior to that we received a sustainability grant of over £1000 from Powys County Council to keep us going in order that we could put a rescue plan into place. In the intrim we have had several fundraising activities. My mum has organised a monthly quiz night for the past four months, a couple of table tops sales, organised by the staff,

All this must seem wonderful to read, however as with most grants the stipulations on how to spend the money are very rigorous, and it takes a lot of control when you have all this money to make sure it does what it is supposed to do. As a committee who have struggled financially over the past two years to stay afloat and keep the child care side of things going, we are looking to investing in some publicity so that our service users will increase.

The school have just received a letter to tell them they have received £10,000 to create a wildlife path and chambers on the back field which would be accessible to tall the community out of school hours. I have also applied for a peoples millions grant to create a sensory garden within this scheme, again for use of the community outside of school hours, and I am currently working with the school children so that they can plan and apply for a grant which would enhance their play ground.

There is lots of money out there for different community organisations, however to say it is easy to get is not so. I can spend up to a week costing and researching Key words for grants, different policies etc which will spark the judges, and sadly not all organisations especially schools have the resources or people available to spend this amount of time in order to obtain monies, very often for items which i believe should be part of the normal school budget.
However once again Crossgates school, as with many other schools in Powys have had there budgets cut, reminding us once again that we are the poor cousin to England. How can Welsh Assembly politicians say that one of their prime objectives is education? Our deputy Head left Crossgates School last yer and went to become a head of a primary school in Telford. She had half the number of children there, yet her budget was the same????? recently she has disbanded her PTA as there were only 3 members and she said she had enough money to pay for trips etc out of her ordinary school budget. Wow how fantastic, at Crossgates we have to contribute £1.20 per week to the bus in order to take our children to the local swimming pool for swimming lessons which is part of the National Curriculum. As a PTA the committee works a huge amount of hours throughout the year raising money for Maths Books and Maths Resources, again part of the national curriculum, we give each class money for Christmas craft so they can create the wonderful things which adorn the school at Christmas, believe you me Glitter dosen''t come cheap when it is needed by 160 children!
So tell me Welsh Assembly government where is the equality in the education system between England and Wales. Our children are being discriminated against, they do not have the same resources or financial backing as their English counterparts,. yet they grow up to compete, supposedly on an even playing field to vie for University places, jobs and careers, shape up Mr Carwyn Jones and give our children a future..........