The pupil premium is a grant given by the government to schools in England to decrease the attainment gap for the most disadvantaged children, whether by income or by family upheaval.
They claim that, since 2011, for free school meals-eligible pupils, whose number has grown significantly, the attainment gap has widened, whereas it has narrowed for those in local authority care.
It noted the number of free school meal-eligible pupils who achieved 5 GCSEs (including English and Mathematics) at grades A*-C was 33.7%, compared to 60.7% for non-eligible students (as at the first-round Summer 2014 results); with lower relative attainment by 27 percent of such students.
[10] The Department for Education has disputed Demos' analysis, its spokesman stating: "It is nonsense to say that the attainment gap is widening.
The 2014 results – when analysed with our more informative and accurate measure – show the gap has narrowed by almost 4 per cent since 2012, the year after the pupil premium was introduced.