Pupil Premium Awards 2014

We introduced the Pupil Premium back in 2011 because we are passionate about giving schools the resources to help disadvantaged youngsters to have as higher level of attainment in school as youngsters from more advantaged backgrounds. The Pupil Premium next year will be a full two and a half billion pounds. It will give significant extra resources for every single disadvantaged youngster in primary schools and secondary schools so that all of the schools that have these disadvantaged youngsters to educate, have the resources to do the job effectively. We introduced the Pupil Premium Awards along with the TES to make sure that the whole profile of the Pupil Premium was as high as possible within the systems so that schools were really thinking about this, not just as additional money, but what they could be doing to narrow the attainment gaps. Also we wanted to identify some of the best schools in the country in terms of closing the gaps and using the Pupil Premium well so that we could then put other schools in touch with those schools and make sure that we spread best practice around the system. We were impressed with the amount of innovation, we were impressed with the fact that schools have been using the Pupil Premium in a variety of different ways to try to make sure that young people were attaining at a higher level. What really set the winners apart was the degree of focus on getting results and quantifiable improvements and using the Pupil Premium in ways that are based on evidence. This is not about encouraging competition for school funding, it's about rewarding and recognising schools that are doing a fantastic job with the Pupil Premium and making sure that we spread best practice around the system by having some schools that are really leading practice in this area, be recognised so that other schools can learn from them. The 2014 Pupil Premium Awards are being launched today, a partnership between the Department for Education and the TES. Schools can now applied to take part in the awards for this year and there is a cut-off date of the 7th April so people have time to get their applications in but we want to see as many good quality applications as possible this year and we think that will get a lot of people participating in the awards because this is not only the second year but actually the Pupil Premium is now worth a lot of money and schools are getting increasingly professional about using it effectively. Schools can now apply immediately to take part in the Pupil Premium Awards in 2014. There is a Pupil Premium Awards website and schools can access that and get in their applications online and the soonest schools can do that the better but they've got until the 7th April. We have big plans to develop the Pupil Premium Awards in future years, in particular we want to attract more schools to take part, we want to incentivise more schools to take part in these awards and we think that by identifying more of the schools that are using the Pupil Premium most effectively we can help schools throughout the system.