The APPG for Education discuss whether schools make best use of the Pupil Premium
The APPG for Education was delighted to host Sir John Dunford, the Government’s Pupil Premium Champion, for a discussion on “Do schools make best use of the Pupil Premium?”. He was joined by Sue Porto, Chief Executive of the Beanstalk Charity and Abigail Shapiro, Founder of the Tutor Trust.
Sir John talked about how use of the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) must become an integral part of the school development plan in order to succeed, quoting Roundhay School in Leeds as an excellent example of how the school has improved attainment and closed the gap by prioritising use of the PPG. He believes that there has to be someone within the school leadership team who has responsibility for PPG. Sir John stated the importance of tracking data and using it effectively – if a change is noticed, interventions can be made speedily, and that diverse use of the PPG showed market improvements in different situations.
Sue Porto outlined how they assist schools with use of the pupil premium by going into schools to give individual additional assistance with literacy and numeracy. Beanstalk offers a cost effective intervention. Each disadvantaged child could be supported for a year for £180 which is just 14% of the pupil premium entitlement, for looked after children this is just 9.5% of the pupil premium plus entitlement.
Abigail Shapiro explained that they are a radical and unique charity in Manchester that offers professional tuition services to schools, on a strictly not-for-profit basis. They work through schools and alongside teachers to provide a first class tutor to all children who need some extra help. Their model is based on recruiting high achieving university students, training them as tutors, insuring them, DBS checking them and matching them into local schools. They are paid out of school funds. Everyone benefits, the students are paid an attractive hourly rate, the school gets the benefit of a tutor for less than it would cost them to pay a commercial agency, and the pupils get motivated and inspired by the young talent coming to their schools.
The discussion which followed covered the continuation of the PPG after the General Election, the effective use of data to assist those in receipt of the PPG, the role of school governors in ensuring effective use of the grant and how those coming into the school must be an integrated part of the school fabric.