Royston Smith – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Royston Smith on 2016-03-23.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment her Department has made of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level.

Mr Sam Gyimah

Since 2012 we have provided £500 per pupil funding to secondary schools for year 7 pupils who did not meet the expected standard in reading or mathematics at primary school. This funding enables schools to deliver additional support, such as individual tuition or intensive support in small groups, for those pupils that most need it.

It is not possible to make an assessment of the effectiveness of the year 7 catch-up premium in raising pupil attainment at GCSE level, as the first cohort of pupils to benefit from this funding in 2012 will now be in year 10 and have not yet entered GCSEs.

We provide advice and guidance to schools on how they should use their funding and have published guidance on literacy and numeracy catch-up strategies which schools can consult when making decisions on how to spend their funding. Schools must publish details of how they spend their year 7 catch-up premium funding on the school website.