The Department for Education (DfE) has announced further details about its ‘future talent fund’ (external link)
The fund is intended to test new strategies for helping the most talented disadvantaged pupils maintain their high performance. It is a response to the significant disparity in outcomes between the most able students at the end of key stage two who are entitled to free school meals and those who are not entitled to free school meals.
Applications for the funding itself will open in the autumn. State-funded schools, multi-academy trusts, independent schools, universities, charities and research organisations will all be eligible to apply, although the projects themselves must be delivered in non-selective, state-funded secondary schools.
This is the latest addition in a series of schemes announced by the DfE intended to support disadvantaged pupils and raise standards, with this particular scheme looking to “encourage evidence-led interventions, including those that could be funded by schools using their Pupil Premium funding”.