The pupil premium must be bolstered to ensure that more money goes towards children who face disadvantage throughout their school life, the government has been told today.
A new report from education charity Teach First, entitled Rethinking Pupil Premium, calls for the £4.7 billion in additional school funding to be weighted towards schools serving the most disadvantaged pupils across England.
In the Levelling Up White Paper, published last Wednesday, the government announced the creation of 55 Education Investment Areas (EIAs) to target “school improvement interventions” and support disadvantaged pupils.
However, Teach First warns there are pupils “facing persistent disadvantage” across the country.
The report calls on the government to create a new pupil premium category for children trapped in long-term poverty - those who are eligible for free school meals for 80 per cent of their education or more.
New pupil premium for ‘persistently disadvantaged pupils’
Teach First says the move would offer “targeted support” to every pupil who needs it and help to “close the gap” between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
The report also reveals that more than two-thirds of teachers at state-funded schools (69 per cent) believe increased pupil premium would help their school to secure better educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, based on polling of 7,000 teachers by Teacher Tapp.
For teachers in the most deprived schools, this figure rose to 87 per cent.
Furthermore, three-quarters of all teachers (74 per cent) want the government to invest in all schools but weight additional funding towards schools serving disadvantaged communities.
Teach First also calls for the government to restore pupil premium rates to 2015-16 real-terms levels, estimating that this policy would cost approximately £264 million a year.
The charity proposes an increase to the early years pupil premium rate to boost the sector’s ability to provide for disadvantaged pupils.
This would to ensure that early years pupils are “school-ready” by the time they start primary school, it argues.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union the NAHT, said the report “shines a spotlight on how the value of pupil premium funding for disadvantaged pupils has been eroded over a number years”.
Mr Whiteman added that the recent “minor uplifts” have not gone far enough in tackling real-term cuts.
“We also fully support the recommendation that the early years pupil premium should be increased. It is widely agreed that early intervention is essential when it comes to having a positive long-term impact on pupil outcomes, so it therefore makes no sense for the early years pupil premium to be only a fraction of the primary funding,” he said.
Cuts have ‘set back the life chances of the next generation’
Dr Mary Bousted, joint general secretary of the NEU teaching union, said: “The pandemic has done terrible damage to education, but even before Covid the government’s cuts had set back the life chances of the next generation.
“There needs to be much more done by government to ensure every child has the education they deserve.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Schools receive pupil premium funding to support disadvantaged pupils, which is increasing to more than £2.6 billion in 2022-23 - the highest cash terms rate since this funding began.
“We have also identified 55 new Education Investment Areas to receive targeted support where educational outcomes are weakest, helping children from all backgrounds succeed at the very highest levels.
“We are levelling up school funding, giving significant increases to every pupil in every school, and are helping pupils make up for learning lost during the pandemic through our ambitious recovery plan.
“Backed by £5 billion, we are rolling out high-quality tutoring, world-class training for teachers and early years practitioners, additional funding for schools, and extending time in colleges by 40 hours a year.”
