Coalition to fund pupils’ catch-up lessons

The Deputy Prime Minister will tell his party conference a £500 ‘catch-up premium’ will be given to secondary schools for each pupil arriving in Year Seven who failed to meet basic standards in English or Maths.

The funding will be warmly welcomed in Yorkshire after it was revealed last week the region has the country’s lowest proportion of primary school pupils making the grade in English.

This year 8,500 children in Yorkshire failed to meet basic standards of reading and writing, and more than 10,000 failed basic maths.

The money will be formally allocated each January, and it is expected many schools will choose to spend it on intensive tuition sessions.

Mr Clegg said: “Secondary school is a massive step up for pupils when much bigger demands are placed on their abilities. For tens of thousands of children, this is all the more daunting because they are simply not equipped with the basics of English and maths needed.

“The funding I’m announcing today will allow schools to provide intensive tuition to help pupils to get up to speed and so get the best out of their secondary school education.”

Lib Dem aides said each premium would pay for around 14 hours of one-to-one tuition, or considerably more if the children were taught in small groups.

The scheme will be funded from underspends within the Department for Education and will cost £55m in its first year, with 110,000 children having failed to meet basic standards.

Mr Clegg told the Yorkshire Post the policy is tied to the decision to scrap GCSEs and make exams more rigorous. “This provides that extra help for children so that parents know that whoever their son or daughter is, we’re going to make damn sure that no child is left behind,” he said.