Literacy news
Ofsted assesses impact of Pupil Premium funding
12 Feb 2013
An Ofsted report has revealed that many schools are using the Pupil Premium funding to raise achievement levels among poorer pupils. However, the report also reveals a significant minority are still struggling to show how the money is making any meaningful impact in terms of narrowing the gap between pupils from low income and more affluent families.
The report into the Pupil Premium draws together some of the effective practice that inspectors have observed during school visits.
Chief Inspector of Schools, Sir Michael Wilshaw, said there was evidence that many schools were now grasping the importance of spending the funding effectively, following an earlier Ofsted report which criticised the performance of many schools in this regard.
He said:
Following my criticism of schools last year, it is clear more schools are now taking their responsibilities seriously when it comes to using the Pupil Premium money and our inspectors have found evidence of some very good practice in their recent visits.
Crucially, many of these good schools are concentrating on the core areas of literacy and numeracy to break down the main barriers to accessing the full curriculum. They are also focusing on the key stages of a child’s development in their school career.
However, some schools still lack good enough systems for tracking the spending of the additional funding or for evaluating the effectiveness of measures they have put in place in terms of improving outcomes.
It is vital that schools get this right. Every child who leaves school without the right qualifications faces a far more difficult path to fulfilling their potential and finding employment.
Sir Michael also said that the Government should consider diverting at least part of the central pot of money it has made available for secondary schools to run summer schools for disadvantaged primary school leavers – to go instead directly to schools to pay for extra support for poorer pupils during the vital Year 7 period. He said that inspectors found the take-up of the summer school money has to date been patchy and by allocating it directly to schools, Ofsted would be able to properly monitor and report on whether the money was being used effectively.
Read more at Wired Gov.
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