Schools shun cost-effective Pupil Premium strategies

Secondary schools are shunning two of the most cost-effective ways of spending the Pupil Premium.

A study has found that two of the cheapest and most effective approaches – improving student feedback and peer-to-peer tutoring – are not being widely used at all. 

Instead, the poll for the Sutton Trust reveals that expensive early intervention programmes and one-to-one tuition are the two most popular ways that secondaries have been spending the funding.

The study involved 1,600 teachers and schools leaders, including 800 secondary professionals, and asked them to rank their schools’ top three priorities for spending the Pupil Premium.

It found that 52 per cent of the secondary teachers and leaders said that early intervention schemes were among their school’s top three priorities – with 19 per cent ranking this approach as their number one focus.