School support scheme branded a success

Wednesday 20 July 2016

Education bosses say this year’s Pupil Premium pilot scheme, designed to financially help disadvantaged youngsters in the Island, has already had a “huge impact.”

The Pupil Premium (PP) started last September and follows UK arrangements which were set up to support disadvantaged children to try to close the gap between the results they get, and the higher results achieved by children from middle class homes.

The pilot scheme was analysed by yesterday’s Education Department Scrutiny panel, who were told it has so far been a success. 

Deputy Jeremy Macon said: “How does it break down per pupil, because I understand in the UK it breaks down roughly at £1,000 per pupil, whereas in Jersey it is currently about £400 per pupil? 

Education Director Justin Donovan said: “The actual final figure is yet to be determined as we are still in a pilot year. We have been pleased with the impact it has been having in terms of behaviour and attendance and other statistics. 

“We take the view that it is sufficient money to make an impact and we want to be absolutely sure it is working before we release further funding. 

“About two-thirds of the Pupil Premium money available has been put into primary schools and about a third into secondary schools. Through research via other pilot schemes we have learned that the sooner we make an impact the better, so we are focussing more on primary pupils than secondary ones. That is the current thinking.”

Deputy Macon asked for the criteria required for a child to receive the Pupil Premium.

Mr Donovan said: “We wrote to all the families on the Island who are in receipt of benefits and meet the criteria to benefit from this scheme. In all we wrote to around 2,500 families and I think only around 40 parents did not respond.” 

Deputy Macon then asked what mechanism has been employed to measure the impact on children? 

“We have already been doing that,” said Mr Donovan. “We have benchmark data for each child. We measure things like reading ages, attendance and a whole range of issues. It is a little complicated because the support is based on an individual's need. The schools suggests ways in which we can assess progress and the main indicators for each pupil is, are they making progress in the classroom and outside of it.

“Some children might not require the full payment, whereas there are other children whose needs are so significant they need more than the current overall payment. We are hoping to be more flexible, so that all the children who benefit from the Pupil Premium make overall progress.

“This is public money and we can’t play fast and loose with it. We have not done that in the past and we won’t do it in the future, but the early signs of this pilot scheme is that it has had a huge impact to a lot of children already.”  

Education Minister Rod Bryans said: “The person who has written the ‘book’ on Pupil Premiums - the bible for it in the UK - was saying at a conference recently he was really pleased with the progress we have made in such a short space of time. The pilot itself has unearthed some really profound bits of information we hadn't considered first.”