Post-16: basic maths premium pilot
A pilot testing the impact of additional funding, in improving the quality of teaching and learning of maths, leading to better student outcomes.
Applies to England
The basic maths premium pilot will be open to post-16 providers based in selected areas. The pilot will run from autumn 2018 for 2 years for the academic year 2018 to 2019 cohort.
The aims of the pilot are to:
- assess which funding approach is most effective at improving outcomes for students with prior attainment of a grade 3 or below in GCSE maths
- identify how the additional funding is used by institutions, and to build up an evidence base on which activities lead to improvements in teaching and learning
- support some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country with additional funding during the pilot
Eligibility
To be eligible your institution must:
- be funded through the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)
- have the main campus in a category 5 or 6 area as identified in the Department for Education’s ‘achieving excellence areas’ methodology on page 13
- have students enrolled on a 16 to 19 study programme without prior attainment of a GCSE grade 4 or above for the 2018 to 2019 academic year cohort
Scope of the pilot
The basic maths premium pilot will test the impact of £500 of additional funds per student for post-16 providers through 3 funding approaches. They are:
- 100% of the additional funding to be paid upfront per each eligible student
- 50% of the additional funding to be paid upfront per each eligible student, and 50% of the additional funding to be paid per student who achieves in maths by summer 2020
- 100% of the additional funding to be paid per student who achieves in maths by summer 2020
The definition of achievement for the purpose of the pilot closely aligns to the condition of funding policy:
- students with prior attainment of a grade 3 in GCSE maths need to achieve a grade 4 or above in GCSE maths
- students with prior attainment of a grade 2 or below in GCSE maths need to achieve a grade 4 or above in GCSE maths, or a Functional Skills Level 2 in maths
Using the basic maths premium effectively
The basic maths premium pilot funding is additional to your 16 to 19 allocation. We expect you to use the additional funding or incentive of additional funding to improve the outcomes of low attaining maths students.
Institutions will have flexibility over how to spend the additional funding. You should only use programmes and approaches that are known to be effective. For example, the funding could be used to pay for:
- more teaching hours
- smaller class sizes
- use of technology
You can find examples in our research report about how to effectively teach and deliver maths to 16 to 18 year olds.
You can also use the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) teaching and learning toolkit.
Opting in
The ESFA will contact all eligible institutions to ask if they would like to be included in the pilot.
The deadline to opt in is Friday 25 May 2018. We will inform institutions about their funding structure allocation after they have opted in.
Payment arrangement
Payments will be made by the ESFA to eligible institutions. The:
- upfront payment will be paid in academic year 2018 to 2019
- result-based payment will be paid in academic year 2020 to 2021
Evaluation
The evaluation will be carried out by NatCen. By opting in, all institutions agree to participate in the pilot and submit an interim and end of academic year report displaying how the additional funding has been spent.
The aim of the evaluation is to assess which funding approach is the most effective at improving outcomes, and to identify good practice in using the additional funding to achieve this improvement.
Contact us
If you have any enquiries about the basic maths premium pilot, please contact us.
Basic skills premium team