Executive Summary In October 2016, Cambridgeshire County Council initiated a collaboration with the Cambridge University Science and Policy Exchange (CUSPE), which brought on teams of researchers to explore challenges faced by the County Council. This report outlines the research conducted by the team set to explore the educational achievement gap in Cambridgeshire. Anecdotal evidence suggested that there was a specific educational gap involving students in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM students).

This gap was that FSM students in schools in more affluent wards underperformed compared to their peers in less affluent wards. We confirmed that in 2016 in Key Stage 1, this was apparent, and we therefore focused on understanding why this gap existed. To do so, we looked into how two policy interventions were being implemented in schools in more affluent and less affluent wards. Those policy interventions were the pupil premium and access to support servicesfor parents and students.

The hypotheses that we sought to test were: Hypothesis 1: Differential spending of Pupil Premium funds between schools in more affluent and less affluent wards results in reduced achievement in schools in more affluent wards Hypothesis 2: Schools in more affluent wards will be less familiar with, and therefore refer students and parents less often to, support services than schools in less affluent wards. Hypothesis 1 was tested by using random stratified sampling to select schools, and then coding their pupil premium spending by categories in line with those set out by the Education Endowment Foundation. A survey was designed to test Hypothesis 2, and was sent to the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCo) in all primary schools to test their familiarity with services and to which services they had recently referred parents or students.