Alison Kershaw covered the Sutton Trust/EEF pupil premium report for the Press Association.

Schools in some of England’s poorest areas saw funding fall by more than 5% between 2010-11 and 2014-15 despite a £6 billion Government programme aimed at disadvantaged pupils, a spending watchdog has found.

The pupil premium, which provides extra funding to schools for children from poor backgrounds, was worth £2.5 billion last year but improvements are needed to ensure if offers value for money, the National Audit Office (NAO) said.

…….

A separate report on the pupil premium by the Sutton Trust education think tank recommended that the Government should automatically reward schools that successfully and consistently improve results for their disadvantaged pupils.

The report also suggested introducing a data-sharing system so that schools are automatically informed when children qualify for free school meals and therefore the pupil premium funding instead of relying on parents to claim the benefit.

The recommendation for rewarding schools would build on the Government’s pupil premium awards scheme, which rewarded 660 schools for their success with the programme with prizes up to £250,000.

Sir Peter Lampl, chairman of the Sutton Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation, said: “There is no doubt that the pupil premium has enabled schools to do more to improve the results of their less advantaged pupils.

“But equally, the data suggests that we still have a long way to go. Giving disadvantaged young people the best start in life is a vital national endeavour that will pay dividends in providing a more skilled workforce and a more just society.”

Read the full PA report at BT.com used in dozens of local and national stories here.

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