Every Child Counts helps schools to tackle disadvantage and make good use of the Pupil Premium
The Education Endowment Foundation (2018) says that the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers is a personal and individual tragedy which costs the country £20-30 billion per year. Progress in narrowing it is too slow.
The Government’s Race Disparity Audit (2017) found that low educational attainment and progress is closely associated with economic disadvantage . . . children eligible for free school meals have lower attainment than non-FSM pupils in all ethnic groups. Only 39% of disadvantaged pupils achieved national expectations in reading, writing and mathematics at Key Stage 2 in 2016, compared with 60% of non-disadvantaged pupils.
The Sutton Trust has identified early intervention schemes as “the clear favourite” for schools to spend pupil premium funding, but cautions that they should use evidence well to inform their spending. The evidence for ECC programmes comes from the schools that use its interventions and record data on the children taking part.
45% of the pupils taking part in Every Child Counts interventions are disadvantaged. They make an average of 13.5 months progress in just 4 months of support – over 3 times the normal rate of progress. Their class teachers report that 94% of them are more confident and motivated to learn afterwards, so they are able to continue to make good progress. Click here to see the latest national reports for each programme.
Each school receives termly reports that include an analysis of children’s characteristics and progress. They help schools to monitor the progress of disadvantaged children and to demonstrate the positive impact of the ECC programmes to governors and inspectors. Click here to see a sample report page
So Every Child Counts is a very effective way to spend Pupil Premium money – it has a positive impact for disadvantaged children, and it helps schools to demonstrate this impact.
Edge Hill University’s Every Child Counts interventions have been good investments and have helped our pupil premium pupils to make enhanced progress.
Helen Hackett, Assistant Head Teacher, Parkfield Community School, Birmingham
Winner of the National Primary School Pupil Premium Award 2015.