Best Practice

Meet the National Pupil Premium champion

Respected educationalist Dr John Dunford officially began work this month as the National Pupil Premium Champion. He spoke to Dorothy Lepkowska about his new role and how he will be helping to support effective Pupil Premium practice.

The calls for help began the day after Dr John Dunford was appointed National Pupil Premium Champion in July. Although he scheduled to begin his role at the beginning of this month, it seems some schools and headteachers could not wait that long.

“I replied immediately giving them links to documents and information they would find useful,” Dr Dunford said. “There is evidence out there that schools clearly don’t know about but would find extremely useful. They were delighted and so was I at being able to help them.”

The schools’ interest was perhaps not surprising given that Ofsted will, in future, pay greater attention to how schools spend their Pupil Premium money, and those doing outstanding work in closing the achievement gap between the most disadvantaged pupils and their peers will be expected to work closely with those struggling in this area – moves announced by David Laws, the schools minister, at the same time as Dr Dunford’s appointment.

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