A survey of 262 school leaders found that the funding for the pupil premium was not separated out from schools’ main budgets in many cases. Half of the schools surveyed said that the pupil premium did not make any difference to the way that they work.
The pupil premium was used most commonly to pay for existing or new teaching assistants, particularly in primary schools.
While half of schools said that the extra funding was having a positive impact, few schools could provide evidence to back this up.
Just one in ten schools – all of which were in the most deprived areas - said that the premium had ‘significantly’ changed the way they worked.
The report said, ‘Often schools did not disaggregate the pupil premium from their main budget, and said that they were using the funding to maintain or enhance existing provision rather than to put in place new activity. This was especially the case when schools were receiving smaller amounts: for many schools the pupil premium represents only a relatively small proportion of their overall budget. While appreciating its flexibility, school leaders often said they felt the pupil premium funding was not "additional" money. Commonly, they felt it had replaced other funding streams that had been withdrawn.’
The Government has allocated schools £1.25 billion to the pupil premium this academic year.
From this month, schools are required to publish information online about how they have used the funding, which is now worth £600 a year for each child who has been eligible for free school meals at any point in the past six years, for looked-after children, and for those whose parents are in the armed forces.
But David Laws, the new schools minister, (pictured), defended the policy, saying that it had only been in place for a year.
Speaking on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, he said, 'This is a balanced approach and I am convinced it is the right [one].'
While he said that it was ‘not good enough’ that half of schools were not using the premium effectively, he also added that there was an accountability mechanism in place to ensure schools use pupil premium money in the right way.
Mr Laws said that while the Government did not want to ‘micro-manage’ schools by telling them how precisely to to help disadvantaged pupils, he said that Ofsted inspectors would look at how schools were using the money to close the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged pupils.
Commenting on the Ofsted report, Martin Johnson, deputy general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said, ‘Ofsted is supposed to make independent judgments. Its Pupil Premium report shows that it is now simply a ministerial mouthpiece, giving more credence to poor quality research and political spin.
‘Schools are suffering real cuts to funding, and rumours are circulating of a big hit in the Chancellor’s autumn statement, so it would be perverse of schools not to use the pupil premium to plug gaps in their funding. If Ofsted, or real researchers, want to discover whether schools are targeting the funding to improve the achievement of poor pupils they need to find out what is happening in classrooms or read schools' websites where they explain how they are spending the pupil premium, not simply look at the accounts.’
Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust and of the Education Endowment Foundation said , ‘Ofsted is right to highlight the importance of the pupil premium being spent as intended, to narrow gaps in attainment between rich and poor children. It is vital that the money intended to boost standards for the poorest pupils is used effectively to narrow those gaps.
‘The Sutton Trust has published research – and a toolkit for teachers – which shows that proven classroom approaches – providing effective feedback on pupil’s performance, encouraging students to think about their own learning strategies, and getting pupils to learn from each other - implemented correctly can increase pupils’ performance by an extra eight or nine months in a school year for a very low cost.
‘Through the Education Endowment Foundation, we are working with schools to trial cost-effective ways of improving the attainment of children on free school meals.’
Benita Refson, chief executive of children’s charity Place2Be, which provides support to children in schools in the most deprived areas, said, ‘By spending the pupil premium on intervening early to support children, schools can truly close the achievement gap between their poorest and most privileged pupils. This approach also makes sound financial sense: for every £1 spent on our services, we save society £6 long-term.
‘Schools can take, and apply, learnings from existing examples of the pupil premium being used effectively to reach those it is intended to help. Teachers should then be held to account, and asked to evidence their effective use of this fund. Only then will we truly turn a corner and give all our poorest children the life chances they deserve.’
- The Pupil Premium is one of several reports published by Ofsted to help schools improve to be at least ‘good’ and ensure that all pupils achieve to the best of their ability. The others are Getting to good, Improving schools: a guide to recent Ofsted reports to support school improvement and initial data from the forthcoming report Early entry to GCSE examinations, which will be published on the Ofsted website shortly.
