Free Schools: Greater Manchester

(asked on 6th February 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment has been made of how pupil premium funding allocated to (a) Collective Spirit Free School in Oldham and (b) the Manchester Creative Studio was spent in each year it was allocated that those schools were in operation; and whether representations on the use of premium funding have been (i) received by Ministers or officials of his Department, (ii) Ofsted and (iii) the Education and Skills Funding Agency.


Answered by
Nadhim Zahawi Portrait
Nadhim Zahawi
This question was answered on 20th February 2018

All schools are allocated pupil premium funding based on the number of pupils who have been recorded as eligible for free school meals during the past six years. A separate grant is allocated for pupils from service families. Pupil premium funding for looked-after children and those who left care through adoption or other official routes is allocated to local authorities, to be spent in consultation with schools.

All schools have autonomy in how they spend pupil premium and the department does not carry out school-level assessment of the use of the pupil premium grant. The performance of disadvantaged pupils is presented annually in published performance tables, and most schools are required to publish details of their pupil premium strategy. While the Collective Free Spirit website is now closed there is a detailed statement on the Manchester Creative Studio website (https://www.mcstudio.co.uk/).

School inspection includes a focus on the progress and outcomes of disadvantaged pupils. Where inspectors identify concerns with the school’s provision for disadvantaged pupils they will recommend that a school commissions an independent review of its pupil premium use; a review was recommended in the most recent inspection of Collective Spirit Free School. Both of the schools in question were inspected and judged to be inadequate in the past fifteen months.

Reticulating Splines