Disadvantaged Learners in Islwyn

Part of 1. Questions to the Cabinet Secretary for Education – in the Senedd at 1:59 pm on 25 April 2018.

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Photo of Kirsty Williams Kirsty Williams Liberal Democrat 1:59, 25 April 2018

It's now called the pupil development grant, because we want to focus on the primary purpose of this grant, and that is to develop the opportunities for some of our most disadvantaged learners. What we do know, Rhianon, is that by targeting investing in our early years, with our very youngest learners, we can address the effects of deprivation on their educational outcomes even more quickly. I have huge confidence in the pupil development grant. If you talk to teachers, which I'm sure you do in your own constituency, they are quite clear about the difference that this money is making. We're increasingly seeing a number of our primary schools that have pupils who are entitled to a free school meal—they're performing at a level on a par with those better-off counterparts, and, indeed, in some primary schools, we even see children on free school meals outperforming their better-off counterparts.