£100m for summer schools

THE coalition government yesterday announced £100 million of extra funding to pay for summer schools for disadvantaged youngsters.

In the first keynote speech of the Liberal Democrat conference, Education Minister David Laws also confirmed the government will increase the pupil premium for children from poorer backgrounds to £900.

The summer school funding will pay to help pupils cope with the transition between primary and secondary schools and will fund the programme until 2014.

Laws said: “All too often pupils who have made big progress through the school year fall behind over the long summer holiday, particularly if they are changing schools.

“Over 2,000 secondary schools took part in that programme this summer and the feedback we received was fantastic, so I am announcing today that we are allocating a further £100m to continue this project in 2013 and 2014.”

In his first Liberal Democrat party conference speech after making a frontbench comeback in the reshuffle, two years after being forced out over the misuse of taxpayer-funded expenses, Laws hailed the success of the pupil premium scheme.

Next year’s rise to £900 – up from £619 per pupil this year – will see £1.8 billion allocated to the premium with the government on track to allocate £2.5bn a year in 2014/15, or around £1,200 per pupil. This meets a pledge included in the general election manifesto, and Laws said it was an indication the party was able to deliver its policies in government.