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Lib Dems target failing children Lib Dems target failing children
(1 day later)
Schools should be given cash incentives to take underperforming children, says Lib Dem education chief Sarah Teather.Schools should be given cash incentives to take underperforming children, says Lib Dem education chief Sarah Teather.
Ms Teather will tell Lib Dem delegates that children's school prospects depend too much on what their parents earn. Ms Teather told Lib Dem delegates more funds should be targeted at children who underachieve, rather than just focusing money on deprived areas.
She wants more funds targeted at children who underachieve, rather than just focusing money on deprived areas. The "pupil premium" could encourage good schools to take on challenging children rather than leaving them to go to "sink schools", she said.
The "pupil premium" could encourage good schools to take on challenging children rather than leaving them to go to "sink schools", she says. She also called for national tests in primary schools to be scrapped.
The latest round of debates at the conference in Brighton comes after former leader Charles Kennedy received two standing ovations as he returned to the spotlight with a platform speech. League tables have given schools an incentive to weed out the under privileged and under achieving Sarah TeatherLib Dem education spokeswoman
If a school knows it will get extra money if they take these children then there is an incentive to take them rather than a disincentive Sarah Teather Ms Teather used her speech to accuse ministers of failing those most in need of the opportunities from education.
And leader Sir Menzies Campbell survived the test of a crunch vote on his plans to drop the past pledge of a 50p top income tax rate and introduce new green taxes. She said: "We have to break the link between poverty and poor achievement at school.
Ms Teather will use her speech to accuse ministers of failing those most in need of the opportunities from education. "League tables have given schools an incentive to weed out the under privileged and under achieving.
"Despite the plethora of rhetoric about an opportunity society, the best predictor of how well you will do in school is your parents' income," she will say. "We could turn that around if schools knew they would get extra help to support the students who are struggling."
"The young people who left school this summer with few or no qualifications, and with no more hope than their parents had, were the same children posed with while electioneering." 'Scrap tests'
Ms Teather will take issue with government deprivation funding - when school funds depend on the area where children live. Ms Teather said the school funds the government targeted at deprived areas were not going where it was needed.
She says extra funding ought to be based on underachievement, with funds on offer for classroom assistants, teaching support and equipment. "We should target the money on the individual child and we should look at how that child is actually doing in school, not where they live."
No disincentive But she also called for an end to national testing at primary school level.
Ms Teather says league tables encourage schools to admit successful children rather than low performers. Ministers could not convince the public that education standards were going up because they did not know.
"If a school knows it will get extra money if they take these children then there is an incentive to take them rather than a disincentive," she told BBC News. Instead of tests for all children, there should be a "sampling system" where a small group of students picked at random sat the same test each year.
Ms Teather says the Lib Dems have yet to decide how exactly they will target the funds, but similar schemes are run in countries such as the Netherlands. "Once we have established a sampling system, teachers would then be free to set and mark their own assessment tests for their own class to tell them how their own students are doing.
She will also use her speech to claim the government no longer knows whether school standards are going up or down. "Then finally we would have assessment for learning, not assessment for targets."
And she will lead a debate on plans to fast track talented teachers to counter a "crisis" in head teacher numbers. 'Every child counts'
Second homes A spokesman for the Department of Education and Skills said key stage tests were "non-negotiable".
The conference is also looking at how to extend help to rural communities. "They provide valuable objective evidence in the core subjects helping inform further improvements to teaching and learning," he said.
Delegates will vote on measures will include a legally-binding code to force supermarkets to prevent suppliers, farmers and consumers being "exploited". "This is an important part of our drive to raise standards in the basics even further in primary schools."
They will also decide on calls for local councils to get a greater say over second homes in an attempt to tackle the shortage of affordable housing in some areas. The spokesman said the government had listened to concerns and changed the way the tests were done to make teacher assessment the deciding factor.
The conference is also examining how to counter people trafficking. "We have no plans to introduce representative cohort sampling," said the spokesman. "Our belief is that every child counts and that every child should be tested."
Home affairs spokesman Nick Clegg is proposing setting up a network of safe havens across Britain and launching more intelligence-led operations to free victims and arrest those responsible. The spokesman also rejected Ms Teather's attack on education standards.
"Excellent standards of teaching, radical reform and record levels of investment have gone hand in hand to deliver 5,800 more good or excellent primary and secondary schools today than in 1997, record test and examination results, and fewer failing schools," he said.