The survey of teachers in primary and secondary schools showed that 16% of schools are planning to spend their pupil premium money on early intervention strategies and 15% on reducing class sizes. Other popular strategies include introducing more one-to-one tuition (10%) and hiring more teaching assistants (8%). A further 8% of schools are planning to use the premium to offset budget cuts elsewhere.

Research carried out by the Sutton Trust earlier this year revealed that while they can be successful, early intervention schemes are not the most cost-effective way of raising attainment in disadvantaged pupils. It also identified reducing class sizes and increasing the number of teaching assistants as being relatively ineffectual. Following the survey, the charity has raised concerns that a significant proportion of schools are choosing to spend the pupil premium on such low-impact strategies

Graham Watts offers an overview of the Sutton Trust research into high, medium and low impact pupil premium strategies.