The Pupil Premium

April

28

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sereena02a
Sereena Davey writes:

If ever there were a lesson on the virtues of patience it would be the journey of the Pupil Premium?!

When I worked in Parliament from 1999-2001 as an education specialist, I worked on a pamphlet with the (then) Education Spokesman Phil Willis MP, and a (then) MEP – a certain Nick Clegg! Nick and Phil both believed that education was the key to social mobility but that too many pupils and schools were failed – even penalised – by the ?one size fits all? approach to pupil funding. We visited the Netherlands and Sweden and considered the way their systems provided extra money to schools who educated children from underprivileged backgrounds. We recognised that educating a child who has a challenging home life, doesn?t speak English as a first language, or has learning problems needs more resources to educate. Rather than leave schools to absorb this extra burden, we concluded that every school with this kind of pupil should receive direct additional funding to help compensate and to level the playing field with schools who had very few of these pupils. Phil and Nick published their ideas in a pamphlet for the think-tank Centre Forum and the ?Pupil Premium? was born?

While this idea quickly became Liberal Democrat policy, it would take nearly another decade until this policy became official government policy. When the Liberal Democrats joined the coalition Government the Pupil Premium was a key part of the new Government?s proposals.

Since then it has put an extra ?2.5 billion in to schools to target the most disadvantaged pupils and help close the attainment gap. It has already provided schools in Castle Point, for example , with an extra ?7.2 million.

The Pupil Premium is a Liberal Democrat policy, without the Liberal Democrats in the next coalition there is no guarantee that any future Government will continue this vital funding to ensure that every pupil, and every school has the best possible opportunity to create a great education to set every child up for life.

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