Tag Archives: pupil premium

Fraser Nelson attacks pupil premium using report that, erm, doesn’t attack pupil premium

By Stephen Tall | Fri 26th April 2013 - 12:55 pm

Fraser Nelson is in bold form today: Spending more doesn’t improve public services.

His basis for this judgement is a report prepared for the Department for Education by Deloitte (available here). If there’s a headline conclusion it’s the fairly uncontentious point that simply spending money on schools does not, in itself, guarantee good outcomes. It matters at least as much how you spend it.

So far, so obvious. And if Fraser’s article had stuck to that basic conclusion it would’ve been fine. But he wanted to make a …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged deloitte, department for education, featured and fraser nelson | 12 Comments

Schools in well-off areas ‘are failing’ poorer pupils

By Mary Reid | Tue 23rd April 2013 - 7:13 pm

The Pupil Premium has had an impact on the educational achievements of many children from disadvantaged backgrounds. Indeed, the gap in attainment between them and the rest of the pupil population is the narrowest it has been for many years.

However, in an interview with the Independent, David Laws highlights the, perhaps surprising, differences between performance in deprived and in affluent areas of the country. It seems that disadvantaged children in well-off areas are not achieving as well as similar children in deprived areas.

David Laws, the Schools minister, described the

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged david laws | 48 Comments

Baroness Tyler writes… A strong charitable sector is at the heart of a fairer society

By Claire Tyler | Mon 18th March 2013 - 4:56 pm

A lot of people are talking about what the challenge of creating a stronger economy and a fairer society means in practical terms. I’m going to focus here on the latter. As well as implementing key Lib Dem policies such as the Pupil Premium ,raising the tax-free personal allowance, making childcare more affordable and introducing the new single tier state pension, it’s important we recognise the role charities and voluntary organisations play in helping people going through difficult times as part of a broader approach to social justice. This country has a proud history of charitable activity to …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged andrew percy, charities aid foundation, comic relief, david blunkett and parliamentary inquiry into growing giving | 10 Comments

Lynne Featherstone writes… Three Lib Dem policies really stand out for me in 2012

By Lynne Featherstone MP | Sat 22nd December 2012 - 10:50 am

International Development minister Lynne Featherstone writes a monthly column for one of her local newspapers. Here is the latest one…

What a year 2012 has been! There are three Lib Dem policies that really stand out for me this year: the Pupil Premium, income tax reductions for low paid and middle income workers and equal marriage.

Before entering Government, the Lib Dems knew there were serious social mobility problems in the UK. Only one in five young people from the poorest families achieve five good GCSEs compared to three out of four from the richest families. Through the …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged equal marriage, income tax, nick clegg and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 13 Comments

Kirsty Williams AM writes: Welsh Liberal Democrats will fight for more for disadvantaged children

By Kirsty Williams AM | Wed 3rd October 2012 - 1:36 pm

Yesterday the Welsh Labour Government submitted its £15 billion draft budget which reveals its spending plans for the next year.

In its current form, the Welsh Liberal Democrats cannot support this budget as we don’t believe it goes far enough to tackle the problem of making sure that children from deprived backgrounds get the fair start in life they deserve.

Last year, the Welsh Liberal Democrats vastly improved the Welsh Government’s budget by agreeing to support it in return for the introduction of a Welsh Pupil Premium. Despite failing standards in our schools and an ever growing spending gap per pupil when compared …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged budget, welsh assembly and welsh liberal democrats | 3 Comments

Aled Roberts AM writes … Assessing the outcomes of a pupil premium in Wales

By Aled Roberts | Tue 11th September 2012 - 2:39 pm

Education is a cornerstone of Liberal Democrat policy and principle. As Lib Dems we subscribe to the view that education is a crucial means by which individuals can realise their full potential. It was only fitting, therefore, that one of our key 2010 election pledges was the implementation of a policy which could address the inequalities in our education system – the Pupil Premium. It was a clear and straightforward manifesto pledge, easy to campaign on and one of the major Lib Dem policy accomplishments for England when Lib Dems went into Coalition Government. Accompanied by the Sutton Trust Toolkit …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, Wales and welsh assembly | 3 Comments

Nick Clegg in Scotland: another opportunity for Scots to get to know him wasted

By Caron Lindsay | Wed 29th August 2012 - 2:25 pm

I am proper livid today. Nick Clegg came to Scotland yesterday. Not that you’d know from the amount of media coverage the visit attracted. There’s not much in today’s papers, although STV covered his visit to a factory in Jedburgh.

What would Scots have learned about our Deputy Prime Minister over the last year? People remember that he had paint thrown at him when he came up last August but his visits since then have largely gone unnoticed. That, I believe, is because we are being far too timid in what we do with him: every time he comes …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged mental health, nick clegg, Scotland and willie rennie | 15 Comments

In other news… Teather on pupil premium, State of play for Welsh Lib Dems & other stories

By Stephen Tall | Tue 28th August 2012 - 6:15 pm

Here’s a round-up of stories we haven’t had time to cover on the site this past few days…

Teather: Pupil premium ‘changing the way schools think’ (BBC)

The Liberal Democrat MP and minister at the Department of Education Sarah Teather, said the policy is about “changing the whole way schools think”. Speaking to The World At One, she said there is a “scandalous gap” between those from poor backgrounds and those from wealthier backgrounds. ” about focusing money on the individual child regardless of where that child is,” she told Martha Kearney. Under the policy, by this September schools in England

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged aldc, bob morgan, bristol mayoral election, calderdale council, corby, cycling, janet battye, jeremy hilton, john hemming, jon rogers, kirsty williams, martin sime, nader fekri, sarah teather, stephen williams, steve webb, sunday trading, thatcham, welsh liberal democrats and willie rennie | 2 Comments

Nick Clegg gives two hoots

By Helen Duffett | Mon 2nd July 2012 - 2:49 pm

What made Nick Clegg hoot on Friday in Oxford?

Answer: the Pupil Premium – £2.5 billion of extra money to help school pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

On the latest visit in his regional summmer tour, Nick Clegg visited a primary school in Oxford to read to children and publicise the Pupil Premium.

From ITV Meridian Tonight:

Nick Clegg hooted like an owl today and told a group of children he wished he’d turned up in his pyjamas. All in a day’s work for

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged nick clegg | 2 Comments

Dan Rogerson MP writes… Tackling disadvantage must start before school

By Dan Rogerson MP | Wed 30th May 2012 - 12:53 pm

Today Nick Clegg announced that the Government was extending the roll out of free Early Years education for all families who meet the free school meals criteria.

This means that the children of parents who are struggling to make ends meet and who rely on state benefits like Income Support or Child Tax Credits will now be entitled to free Early Years education from the age of two.

Sound familiar? That’s because Liberal Democrats in government have been consistently ensuring that one of the Coalition Government’s main priorities is closing the attainment gap between the poorest children and the better off.

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, free school meals, nick clegg and susan kramer | 5 Comments

Opinion: Pupil Premium. Extend the concept?

By Paul Reynolds | Fri 18th May 2012 - 12:00 pm

The Pupil Premium (PP) is great politics. As a way of increasing funding for schools with more pupils from poorer backgrounds, with all the incentives that implies, is has laudable political features. It contrasts us well as ‘pro-poor’ relative to the Conservatives. It is a kind of remedy for the ‘student fees’ debacle. And it is simple – easy to understand and to implement.

It is worth having a closer look at its features and context. Are there any broader lessons for the Lib Dems?

First, what is it? In effect PP is an additional dimension to the way that central government …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education and schools | 10 Comments

John Leech MP writes… It is not just the Leader’s job to sell the Pupil Premium

By John Leech MP | Tue 15th May 2012 - 4:21 pm

The Pupil Premium is one of our biggest achievement in government, and helps the poorest children in our country bridge the gap when it comes to the quality of education they receive. Manchester has had an extra £19 million this year, and the overall spend is some £1.25 billion this year, increasing to £2.5 billion by 2014/15.

The Pupil Premium ticks all the boxes for the Party. It is designed to help the most disadvantaged, it allows schools to spend the extra money flexibly, and it is new money on top of the school budget.

So why are we not shouting about …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged nick clegg, sarah teather and twitter | 22 Comments

The Independent View: Clegg’s Pupil Premium could be wasted

By Rick Muir | Tue 15th May 2012 - 8:56 am

Keen to move on from the poor headlines of the last few weeks, Nick Clegg has sought to re-focus attention on his flagship social mobility agenda with a speech on the Pupil Premium.

The Pupil Premium is the government’s main policy for reducing educational inequality in schools, meaning that schools get extra funding for every child on Free School Meals (£488 this year, £600 next year). IPPR has always welcomed the Pupil Premium but have expressed concerns that it will not be spent directly on providing extra support for the children who need it. Under the current model, schools are free to spend it on whatever they like – and the majority of heads say they are using it to plug gaps in existing budgets.

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged EBacc and schools | 15 Comments

Andrew Stunell MP writes… Launching the Liberal Democrats’ local election campaign

By Andrew Stunell MP | Tue 3rd April 2012 - 4:18 pm

Local Election Day is now exactly a month away for most of Metropolitan England as well as across the whole of Scotland and Wales. Nick Clegg was in my own area of Stockport earlier today to officially launch the Liberal Democrat local election campaign, visiting a local business and speaking with councillors, business owners and local people.

I’ve no doubt that many of you have been out on the doorstep over the last few months, talking to people and showing them what we are achieving both nationally and locally.

You will already have your big messages in place. Number one has got …

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Posted in Local government | Also tagged council tax, local elections, pensions, raising tax threshold, richard kemp and youth contract | 8 Comments

LDVideo: Jo Swinson’s Political Slot: The Liberal Democrats are in government on your side

By Helen Duffett | Mon 5th March 2012 - 1:07 pm

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Posted in Lib Dem TV and News | Also tagged apprenticeships, Jo Swinson, tax cuts (Lib Dem), vince cable and youth contract | 6 Comments

Labour’s new approach to education: ‘Evidence, evidence, evidence’. What can the Lib Dems learn from this?

By Stephen Tall | Thu 23rd February 2012 - 9:15 am

I’m going to do something now I haven’t had cause to do in a good few months: praise a Labour policy. Here’s why.

On Tuesday night, I went along to listen to Stephen Twigg, Labour’s shadow education secretary, deliver a speech to a ProgressOnline debate on raising standards in education. (The event was in parliament’s Grimond Room, so I felt reasonably at home.) The theme was ‘Evidence, not dogma’, and Mr Twigg stayed true to the spirit of it, announcing a heavily-trailed proposal that Labour will establish an Office for Educational Improvement. You can read his speech here, and …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, featured, labour party, sarah teather, schools and stephen twigg | 20 Comments

LibLink: Mr Clegg Goes to Peterbrook

By NewsHound | Sun 29th January 2012 - 5:55 pm

We’ve not often LibLinked through to the ‘Breaking News’ section of Peterbrook Primary School’s website. In fact we never have before. But their report of Nick Clegg’s visit, alongside local Solihull MP Lorely Burt, deserves a wide audience, and here’s a snippet:

Together with Solihull M.P Lorely Burt and an entourage of press and media broadcasters, Mr. Clegg came from London to see us so that we could share with him our curriculum developments using ‘Pupil Premium’ funding to support the learning and personal development needs of all pupils, with a specific focus at times, on those pupils who are eligible

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged lorely burt, nick clegg, schools and solihull | 3 Comments

Ian Swales MP writes: 12 CUTS Labour don’t talk about

By Ian Swales MP | Fri 30th December 2011 - 12:30 pm

The Labour party think they can win the economic argument by just wailing about cuts on behalf of their public sector union paymasters. They give no credible alternatives for what they would do about Britain’s economic crisis.

What they also like to ignore is some of the changes that are being made towards making this country fairer. Here is a list of cuts WE should be talking about because they are mostly happening through Lib Dem action and pressure.

The CUT from £250,000 to £50,000 in the maximum annual pension contribution to receive tax relief – clawing back a staggering £4,000,000,000 (£4bn) that Labour was giving to the rich.
The

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged labour party, regional growth fund, spending cuts, tax cuts (Lib Dem) and triple lock | 55 Comments

Tim Farron’s Christmas message

By Tim Farron MP | Fri 23rd December 2011 - 12:57 pm

Well that was quite a year, wasn’t it? It was a good one too!

I know, I know, after the referendum and the horrible results in May you’d be forgiven for believing we were sinking faster than Blackburn Rovers (how it pains me to write that), but you know what, it’s not true.

This year we did some amazing things, things you and I have wanted to do for years but never had the power to actually get done.

For one, we put an end to the horrific practice of locking up innocent kids behind bars for months on end in immigration …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged Alex Cole-Hamilton, blackburn rovers, NHS, pensions and tax | 10 Comments

Nick Clegg responds as more Labour councillors deride extra money for poor pupils

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 22nd December 2011 - 12:27 pm

Following Manchester Labour’s extraordinary attack on the pupil premium – describing the policy as a “sham” – news reaches The Voice via Lib Dem councillor Steve Beasant that a Labour cabinet member on North East Lincolnshire Council has joined his Manchester colleagues in their criticism.

As Paul Walter reported earlier, Nick Clegg was asked about the comments of Manchester’s Labour councillors at Tuesday’s Deputy Prime Minister’s Questions by Lib Dem MP Duncan Hames. Here’s the full exchange:

Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD): Wiltshire schools have long felt short-changed by funding allocations for education, so they will welcome the doubling of pupil

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Posted in News | Also tagged DPMQs, duncan hames, manchester, nick clegg and steve beasant | 11 Comments

LibLink: In defence of the Lib Dems

By Prateek Buch | Fri 16th December 2011 - 3:00 pm

Yours truly has a post on the New Statesman rolling blog The Staggers, responding to Mehdi Hasan’s rather provocative question, “What’s the point of the Liberal Democrats?”

Hasan pointed out five areas in which the Lib Dems had (in his view) “sacrificed their distinctive beliefs and principles and received little in return.”

I responded with my own 5 points, including:

1) Ask the nearly 1 million low-paid workers who have been lifted out of paying income tax altogether thanks to a Lib Dem manifesto commitment delivered in government. With the prospect of further significant reforms to come to make

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Posted in LibLink | Also tagged Lib Dems, mehdi hasan, new statesman, prateek buch and tax cuts (Lib Dem) | 4 Comments

Opinion: One year on from Tuition Fees: why I’m still a Liberal Democrat

By Harry Matthews | Fri 9th December 2011 - 12:51 pm

It’s one year on from the vote on Tuition Fees, so I thought I would lay out some reasons why I, as a student, am still a Liberal Democrat after our great ‘betrayal’.

Although our ministers are having to make tough choices, Liberal Democrats have won a major victory – having a tax cut for the low paid, rather than the very rich, as the Tories would have preferred. Raising the income tax threshold to £10,000 is a good way to correct the disaster Gordon Brown created when he scrapped the 10p tax band. Plus it is a tax cut …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged alternative vote, gordon brown, kirsty williams, nick clegg, tuition fees and youth contract | 25 Comments

Extra £11million funding for disadvantaged pupils is a “sham”, says Manchester Labour Party

By Nick Thornsby | Thu 8th December 2011 - 4:54 pm

There’s rather bizarre news from Manchester, where the Council’s ruling Labour group has passed a motion declaring the pupil premium a “sham” and calling for the policy to be scrapped.

The pupil premium – which was a key Lib Dem policy at the last election – has meant a funding boost of almost £11million for Manchester’s schools this year (rising to £20million next year), with the money targeted specifically at pupils from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.

As Lib Dem councillor for Gorton North, Jackie Pearcey, says:

I know that in Gorton and Abbey Hey, this money is making a real difference to

…

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Posted in News | Also tagged jackie pearcey, labour party and manchester | 23 Comments

What does the public think about income inequality?

By Mark Pack | Tue 29th November 2011 - 3:54 pm

Here, courtesy of the latest British Social Attitudes survey (published last year) is the answer:

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Posted in News | Also tagged inequality | 2 Comments

Kirsty Williams writes… The Welsh Pupil Premium

By Kirsty Williams AM | Mon 28th November 2011 - 11:51 am

Last week I announced that the Welsh Liberal Democrats will be voting with the Welsh Labour government for the budget on the 6th December.

We have agreed to support the 2012-2013 budget on the basis that we will be introducing a Welsh Pupil Premium. This means that from April 2012, every child in Wales on free schools meals will recieve an extra £450 of funding – no matter where they live, or what school they go to. This is a total Pupil Premium spending of £32 million, of which £20 million is brand new money for the education budget.

Some …

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Posted in Op-eds and Wales | Also tagged education and nick clegg | 2 Comments

Pupil Premium comes to Wales

By Mark Pack | Fri 25th November 2011 - 5:55 pm

The Welsh Liberal Democrats report:

The Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Member for South Wales West, Peter Black has welcomed the budget deal between Labour and the Liberal Democrats that will deliver an extra £450 directly to local schools for each child on free school meals.

The total package will mean that schools in Swansea, Neath Port Talbot and Bridgend will have an extra £5.8 million to spend from May next year, targeted on the poorest children, who are already under-achieving. This breaks down as £2.57m for Swansea, £1.53m for Bridgend and £1.71m for Neath Port Talbot.

Commenting on the outcome of the

…

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Posted in News and Wales | Also tagged education and peter black | 3 Comments

The Independent View: Coalition’s social mobility strategy failing

By Jonathan Clifton | Fri 28th October 2011 - 9:54 am

The government’s plan to improve social mobility has been dealt a series of blows over the past week. New education data show that trends towards a more ‘socially mobile’ Britain are pointing in the wrong direction.

Nick Clegg launched the government’s social mobility strategy last April, promising to ‘open the doors of opportunity’ to children from disadvantaged homes as they move into adulthood. Children from poor homes are half as likely to achieve five good GCSEs as their better off peers, and they account for less than one in a hundred Oxbridge students. Clegg rightly pointed out that …

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Posted in Op-eds and The Independent View | Also tagged education, higher education, nick clegg, social mobility, tuition fees and universities | 8 Comments

Opinion: Summer schools? Little more than a sticking plaster

By Alex Feakes | Thu 13th October 2011 - 9:25 am

Nick Clegg’s conference announcement of £50m to fund summer schools for the disadvantaged caught the headlines (even in the Daily Mail!), and received some support in editorials and from some Lib Dem bloggers. However, though it might be a crowd pleaser and a nice idea, in truth it’s little more than a sticking plaster for deeper problems.

Would I have them rather than nothing at all? Possibly, but I’d rather the money stayed in the Pupil Premium where it is at least targeted through mechanisms (schools) that are already set up to identify and address students needs. Perhaps even

…

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged education, nick clegg and riots | 2 Comments

Sarah Teather MP writes: Pupil Premium – coming to a school near you

By Sarah Teather | Wed 12th October 2011 - 9:47 am

Usually it’s quite hard explaining how being a Liberal Democrat Minister in government makes a difference to the people in my constituency. But the Pupil Premium is an exception to that rule. It is a policy with two key characteristics – it has an identifiable impact in every local area, and it’s distinctively Liberal Democrat.

Today the Government released the final Pupil Premium figures for English schools. In the financial year 2011-12 schools are receiving £488 for each child on free school meals they have on their roll.

Anyone can visit the DfE website and search for their local …

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Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged department for education | 9 Comments