We were informed last week that the UK government intends to remove state funding for the extra hours required to teach large sixth form programmes including our end qualification, the International Baccalaureate (IB) Diploma. The Large Programme Uplift currently provides an extra 20% of funding worth approximately £75,000 per year for Europa, which reflects the extra hours required to teach the Diploma course. The Government has only allowed one transition year in 2026-27 to taper the funding loss with no uplift funding in 2027-28. In its place the government wants to focus on large A-level programmes which include the study of STEM subjects – such as maths and further maths.
This news has taken the IB state school community completely by surprise, however, the UK association of IB schools (IBCSA) has already mobilised its campaign and committed funds to fight this decision. IBSCA have advised us that the social media campaign needed to get the message across will be very bleak. Therefore, the headlines generated may focus on the worst case scenarios and not always reflect the reality in schools.
It is important to note that funding has not been completely cut for IB schools as has been stated in some press releases, but that we risk losing 20% of our funding for our 6th form pupils. The Management and Governors are working hard to do what we can to mitigate the risk and will keep you informed of developments as we have them.
Given this situation I appeal to all parents to write to your constituency MPs to protest about this decision. It is unwise and unfair to the state schools running IB programmes including ourselves. I list below the main objections to this decision for Europa School UK that you may use in your letters to your MPs:
- The IB Diploma meets the two key objectives of our school.
- Firstly, it facilitates a broad curriculum with all students studying 11 subjects in upper secondary including triple science which ensures a good take up of higher level science at Diploma level.
- Secondly, for our unique bilingual model it offers the only appropriately challenging assessment routes for our students’ proficient language skills which would be lost if we had to resort to GCSEs and A-levels.In 2021, following Brexit, the Department of Education paid £100,000 to support Europa’s transition to the IB.
- Our senior management team and governors are convinced that the IB Diploma provides the best preparation for our students wanting to take up high valued courses at top universities.
- The IB Diploma already has the requirement for students to study Mathematics and at least one Science over the two-year course. Many of our students chose these subjects at a higher level which is equivalent to an A level, thus the Diploma programme is already delivering on the UK Government’s objective to have more students studying STEM subjects to drive economic growth.
- The IB Diploma programme should be available to state school students because it is a highly valued qualification and internationally recognised.We are determined to do all that we can to get the decision reversed and for the reasons above we will continue to offer the IB Diploma qualification.