Following a visit to Settrington All Saints’ Church of England Primary School in Malton I have promised to campaign for more resources to ensure that ‘opportunity area’ funding designed to support disadvantaged children in education continues - work that is supported by Settrington in its role as a Research School.
I will meet the Education Secretary of State, Gavin Williamson MP, to ensure that the Borough of Scarborough, one of 12 ‘opportunity areas’, which Settrington All Saints’ Church of England school helps to lead along with other local stakeholders, receives its fair share of the promised extra £18 million pounds designated this year for schools with underprivileged children.
As a Research School Settrington Primary promotes evidence-based practices in the North Yorkshire coast and Ryedale region. This means it helps schools in its area to make better choices about how to spend their funding based on the experiences of others and to ensure they access the evidence in a manageable way.
Settrington All Saints’ Church of England Primary school, led by its Head Teacher Mari Palmer does a fantastic job. I met many of the pupils and they were really happy and focussed on their activities. I think its brilliant that Mrs Palmer and her team are able to gather evidence from schools in the area about how to make the best use of their resources. This includes when and how to use teaching assistants and the best interventions to help those who might be falling behind creating a bank of data which can be channelled through to other schools.
Mari Palmer who leads a team of 18 other teachers from across the region to support up to 100 schools said " We were really grateful that Kevin came to visit us and shared some time with the children in our school and also learnt about our work as a Research School. The children were excited to meet their local MP and were able to ask him questions about his role. Kevin did an excellent job of explaining this in a way that was easy for them to understand.".
The new cash will fund a fourth year of the £72 million “opportunity areas” programme, aimed at boosting social mobility in 12 of the country’s most disadvantaged regions, up until August 2021.
