Press Story

Improving school performance through academy and free schools status is important, but it will not be enough to close the attainment gap between rich and poor pupils in England's schools, according to a new collection of essays published by the think tank IPPR today. The report will be launched at an event with Schools Minister David Laws MP.

The report argues that the additional £1.25bn over the next two years from the pupil premium should be focused on primary schools, while the pupil premium in secondary schools would be held at its current level. It says this would ensure that resources are targeted to where they are needed most.

The report shows that around one in five children left primary school without having reached a sufficient standard in reading and writing. It shows that these children then struggle to catch-up and fall further behind at secondary school.

It highlights the following problems with the pupil premium:

o for the majority of schools, the pupil premium is not additional money. Over the next three years, schools face a cut in their main budget on the one hand, and an increase in their pupil premium funding on the other. As a result, around two thirds of primary schools will see a real-terms cut in their budget over the course of this parliament.

o schools face pressures to spend their resources on things that are not directly related to tackling educational inequality. The pupil premium is not ringfenced - it is an additional sum of money in a school's general budget and is therefore subject to competing demands.

o many of the pupils who fall behind do come from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, although they are not technically eligible for free school meals or the pupil premium.

The report provides evidence of successful programmes to boost reading skills in primary schools, and shows that targeted support for children who struggle to read in primary school can have a lasting impact on their educational attainment. The report raises concerns that these programmes may be cut as a result of tight government spending. It argues that targeting any future increases in the pupil premium on primary schools could help to protect these programmes, and ensure that resources are targeted where they are needed most.

Jonathan Clifton, Senior Research Fellow at IPPR, said:

"The pupil premium is a good idea. But the key to narrowing the achievement gap is high-quality literacy and numeracy interventions that are targeted towards pupils who are falling behind in primary and early secondary school.

"For the majority of schools, the pupil premium is not additional money because of cuts in schools' main budgets. Because the pupil premium is not ring-fenced, schools face pressures to spend their resources on things that are not directly related to tackling educational inequality. Many of the pupils who fall behind do come from disadvantaged neighbourhoods, although they are not technically eligible for free school meals or the pupil premium.

"There are reports today that the Department for Education may be asked to make £2bn of spending cuts after this month's spending review. It is important that scarce resources are targeted where they will be most effective, and that is boosting reading skills in primary schools."

The report includes the following essays:

o How will we know whether we have succeeded in tackling educational disadvantage?
Brett Wigdortz is the founder and CEO of Teach First

o Fair access: Making school choice and admissions work for all
Rebecca Allen is reader in the economics of education at the Institute of Education, University of London

o School accountability, performance and pupil attainment
Simon Burgess is professor of economics at the University of Bristol, and director of the Centre for Market and Public Organisation

o The importance of teaching
Dylan Wiliam is an emeritus professor at the Institute of Education, University of London

o Reducing within-school variation and the role of middle leadership
James Toop is CEO Of Teaching Leaders, a leadership development programme for middle leaders in schools in challenging contexts

o The importance of collaboration: Creating 'families of schools'
Tim Brighouse is a former teacher and chief education officer of Oxfordshire and Birmingham. He ran the London Challenge as chief commissioner for schools.

o Testing times: Reforming classroom teaching through assessment
Christine Harrison is a senior lecturer in science education at King's College London

o Tackling pupil disengagement: Making the curriculum more engaging
David Price is a senior associate at the Innovation Unit, author and educational consultant

o Beyond the school gates: Developing children's zones for England
Alan Dyson is professor of education at the University of Manchester and co-director of the Centre for Equity in Education
Kirstin Kerr is a lecturer in education at the University of Manchester and researcher at the Centre for Equity in Education
Chris Wellings is head of programme policy in Save the Children's UK Programme

o After school: Promoting opportunities for all young people in a locality
Ann Hodgson is a professor of education and director of the Learning for London @IOE Research Centre, Institute of Education, University of London
Ken Spours is a professor or education and co-director of the Centre for Post-14 Research and Innovation at the Institute of Education, University of London

o The achievement gap in context & Getting the most out of the pupil premium
Jonathan Clifton is a senior research fellow at IPPR
Will Cook is an associate fellow at IPPR

Notes to Editors

IPPR's new report - 'Excellent and equity: tackling educational disadvantage in England's secondary schools' - will be published at: http://www.ippr.org/publication/55/10897/excellence-and-equity-tackling-educational-disadvantage-in-englands-secondary-schools

For more details on the launch event with Davis Laws, see: http://ippr.org/events/54/10841/excellence-and-equity-tackling-educational-disadvantage-in-englands-secondary-schools

A survey by Ofsted found that 40 per cent of school leaders are using the pupil premium to fund new or existing teaching assistants, primarily to deliver small group interventions in literacy and numeracy. However a comprehensive longitudinal study found that when schools use teaching assistants (TAs) in this way it can have a negative impact on pupil progress, especially for those pupils with the highest level of need. This is largely because schools used TAs to work directly with lower attaining pupils, which in turn deprived them of contact time with a trained teacher. IPPR's report argues that if teachers engage with research it could provide guidance about better ways to deploy support staff. For example, TAs could be asked to work with the middle and highest attaining pupils, creating time for the teacher to give more individualised instruction to those who are falling behind.

The Every Child a Reader (ECaR) programme was rolled out by national government in 2008. It offers a three-wave approach to supporting reading in early primary school, including whole-class activities, small group interventions, and intensive one-to-one support for children with particular needs. ECaR drew heavily on the established Reading Recovery programme, which places the lowest attaining six-year-olds with a specially trained teacher. These children get individual lessons for 30 minutes every day in their own school. Evaluations have shown the children learn four to five times faster than their peers, which enables them to catch-up with their classmates within about 20 weeks. Most important of all, these gains remained with pupils until the end of primary school. In a sample of children who completed Reading Recovery, 95 per cent went on to achieve level 3 in reading, and 78 per cent achieved level 4 in reading at age 11. ECaR created an infrastructure to help schools implement the programme. This included training a cadre of specialist Reading Recovery teachers, appointing a lead teacher to champion the programme in each school, a package of professional development for staff, and support from the local authority. This package of support was essential for the success of the programme, but it made it very expensive to deliver, costing roughly £2,600 per participant on the Reading Recovery scheme. In 2010 the government decided to axe the ECaR programme, and there are concerns that schools have stopped using many of the effective interventions contained within it.

Contact

Richard Darlington, 07525 481 602, r.darlington@ippr.org

Tessa Evans, 07875727298, t.evans@ippr.org