No discussions concerning funding have taken place between my Department and the school referred to by the Deputy. The Deputy will be aware of the new programme, Giving Children An Even Break, that I announced on 4 January last which will run over a three-year period and will cost some £26 million. The programme involves the creation of 204 new primary teaching posts and the allocation of cash grants to over 2,300 primary schools in respect of disadvantaged pupils.
Schools invited to participate in the new programme were identified through a survey of educational disadvantage in primary schools carried out by the Educational Research Centre for my Department last year.
A key condition of participation in the new programme is that the additional resources must be used for the provision of holistic supports for pupils from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds. The additional supports to be provided reflect the level of concentration of pupils from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in each school invited to participate in the programme.