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Teacher Pay policy hurts disadvantaged schools says EPI

In July the Government announced the first teacher pay rise in eight years. The main pay scale rose by 3.5 per cent, the upper pay scale by 2 per cent and the leadership pay range by 1.5 per cent.

The DfE also simultaneously released details of a £508 million fund to be distributed over the next 18 months to cover part of the cost. This month we found out how the allocations would be distributed to schools.

The EPI’s research found that schools with small class sizes and high levels of disadvantage are less likely to receive enough funding to cover the cost of the pay rise.

This is because the funding is allocated on the basis of the number of pupils in a school. Disadvantaged schools are likely to have smaller class sizes and younger teachers on the main pay scale (due to increased problems with retention). As a result, they are more likely to receive insufficient grants to cover the additional costs.

Schools with fewer than 100 pupils receive funding on the basis of at least 100 pupils. This was likely put in place to protect schools with very small numbers of pupils and a high teacher to pupil ratio but also means that small schools with more typical staffing structures benefit significantly.

Read the full report here.

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