IB blow: Labour cuts set to end Hockerill Anglo-European College’s alternative to A-levels

Government cuts are set to blow a £200,000 hole in Hockerill Anglo-European College’s budget as Labour prepares to cut funding for IB (International Baccalaureate) students.

Bishop’s Stortford’s MP Josh Dean challenged children and families minister Josh MacAlister about the timing of the bombshell announcement for the Dunmow Road secondary and 19 other state schools offering the global qualification as an alternative to A-levels.

In a Westminster Hall debate last week, Mr Dean said: “Hockerill’s sixth form open morning for the next school year takes place in just under a month, and the letter notifying the school of the changes arrived on October 1 – the same day its promotional material for the sixth form was signed off.

“The school had received no previous indication of potential changes and had not been consulted.

“The letter professed to let it know about them ‘in good time’ in case it needed ‘to consider changes’ to its ‘provision and plans’.

“However, when I met the principal last week, he was clear that, with the prospectus signed off and families due to walk through the door for their open morning, there simply is not time to make drastic changes to provision.”

Mr Dean asked the minister to meet him to discuss the issue and urged the Government to continue interim funding so the school can honour its IB commitment to the current Year 11 cohort, before switching to A-levels.

Currently, state schools offering the IB receive extra funding per sixth form pupil – around £1,000 each a year – to reflect the extra teaching required.

Students spend 90% of their time in lessons, tackling languages, humanities, sciences, maths and arts. They also complete extended projects, theory of knowledge and service in the community.

By contrast, A-level students are taught for 70% of their time at school.

The Government has announced that the uplift will not be provided from the 2026-27 academic year, although some transitional funding will be available. Nationally, the cuts for around 5,000 youngsters will save around £2.5 million from a departmental budget that exceeds £100 billion.

The Department for Education said schools still had the freedom to offer the IB without the extra cash. However, Labour wants central funding to be aimed at “prioritising subjects we know lead to good jobs and drive economic growth”.

Hockerill’s principal, Alasdair Mackenzie, who took charge in January this year, said he was disappointed by the decision and the prospect of losing £200,000 across two sixth-form year groups.

“It’s a substantial amount of money… I can accept the Government saying, ‘We’re not stopping you from running the IB diploma, we’re just not going to give you more money for the curriculum choices you make than an A-level school’.

“What I find difficult to accept, and it’s going to be challenging for us to manage, is the fact that the funding will stop from September 26 [next year].

“So it’s with immediate effect. They’ve agreed to do a transition payment for our current Year 12, who will be Year 13 next year. They’ll fund them for a final year and then there will be no more.

“The letter I received on October 1 was the very first notice we received about this… If they had said ‘In 2028, 2029, we’re going to remove this funding’, it would give us time as a school to think carefully about where we wanted to go next.”

Hockerill was committed to offering the IB to current Year 11 students, said Mr Mackenzie.

“We’ll find the money to fund that… We’ll use our reserves if we need to, but we’ll spend money to make sure our current Year 11s have the option to study the diploma programme here.”

Beyond that, he said, he and his staff were determined to rise to the challenge of the changes, and many parents had already pledged support as the governors consider the best way forward.

Mr Mackenzie said: “It isn’t a disaster in any way at all. It’s a real opportunity at a time when there’s a lot of change taking place in education.”

He was concerned that the Government’s decision meant IB education would become the preserve of private schools, like Felsted, and that Bishop’s Stortford youngsters would have less choice in future as a result, with all secondaries offering A-levels.

However, he said Hockerill was determined to maintain its distinctive character – including offering boarding – as a real alternative.

“The international ethos of the school, our focus towards languages, music, extra-curricular clubs, the whole all-round package we offer will stay because otherwise we become too similar to the other schools.”

He expected to explore the opportunities offered by the Government’s new V-level programme, which will offer a vocational pathway for students who want to explore different sectors before deciding where to specialise.

Mr Mackenzie said: “I’m excited because it’s something to get your teeth into. While it’s been forced on us a bit in terms of the timescale, we can make a decision that it is good for the long-term benefit of the school and that it is good for the Bishop’s Stortford community.

“I want us to have something different here.”