Lib Dems Announce Pupil Premium for Local Schools

County Councillor Colin Taylor has welcomed news of almost £6,000,000 extra for schools in Surrey, including over £500,000 extra for schools within the Epsom & Ewell constituency, particularly for Epsom Primary School, one of the three primary schools in his county division where he serves as a school governor.

The original plans for an extra £430 per pupil have been boosted by £100m, meaning that every school in Epsom & Ewell will now get nearly £500 for every child on Free School Meals. Surrey County Council's Lib Dems have also been working hard to drive the number of recorded free school meals pupils up in order to ensure that Surrey schools receive the maximum possible benefit from this policy.

The money is to be used by schools to increase attainment of deprived pupils. Schools in Epsom & Ewell are already making plans to use the money. For Epsom Primary School this has meant an extra £56,608 to benefit 116 pupils there, 31% of the total school roll. Stamford Green will receive £8,784 to benefit 18 of their pupils and Southfield Park qualifies for £9,272 to benefit 19 pupils.

News of the extra money comes after Lib Dem Children's Minister, Sarah Teather recently announced that the total Pupil Premium funding for next year will rise to £1.25bn, double the amount in 2011-12. Liberal Democrat policy, agreed within the coalition government, means that it will rise again each year until 2014-15, by which time it will be worth £2.5bn per year.

Cllr Taylor said "It makes for depressing reading that nationally, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are three times less likely to achieve five good GCSE's than their more well-off classmates. I'm proud that my party has ensured that there is extra money to finally reverse this worrying trend. Locally we've been working to ensure that pupils in Epsom & Ewell benefit as much as possible from this extra money. We look forward to working with our schools to help overcome the barriers to achievement that some of the pupils in our community currently face."

Some other schools in Epsom and Ewell and what the Pupil Premium means for them:

• Rosebery High School: Allocation £17,568, benefitting 36 pupils, 3% of the total
• Epsom & Ewell High School: Allocation £35,136, benefitting 72 pupils, 11% of the total
• West Ewell Infants School: Allocation £18,544, benefitting 38 pupils, 15%
• Danetree Junior School: Allocation £20,984, benefitting 43 pupils, 11%