We believe that investment in education is the best way to tackle poverty and to strengthen our economy. But children in England have more than £600 each year spent on their schooling than children in Wales. That is why we have promised to close this funding gap between Wales and England, starting with the poorest pupils.
Welsh Liberal Democrat Assembly Members have used their influence to insist that a pupil premium was established in Wales, so
that schools will be able to reduce the impact of poverty on educational attainment and close the spending gap. We ensured that education was treated with the priority it deserves during budget negotiations.
We secured £32million, focused on improving the attainment of the poorest pupils; schools will now receive £450 for each child who receives free school meals.
The pupil premium will begin to break the link, school-by-school, community-bycommunity, between poverty and attainment that has dogged our education system for too long.
Welsh Liberal Democrat-led councils have invested in schools in their areas. Under Labour, Cardiff had the second-worst funded schools in Wales. Now, led by the Welsh Liberal Democrats, it has the second best. In Powys, we have ensured each pupil aged 11-16 receives an extra £150 for their school. In Swansea, we have invested an extra £1.2 million to improve literacy and numeracy. And in Wrexham, we overhauled the way pupils were supported, nearly doubling the number of pupils achieving five GCSEs since 2004.
Our approach will help improve standards in schools.
