Giving Children an Even Break subsumes the previous process of designation of schools that serve areas of educational disadvantage and my Department's approach is now refined to ensure that individual "at risk" pupils are targeted. Rather than the old method of designating additional schools, under this scheme my Department provides support that is commensurate with the levels of concentration in schools of pupils with characteristics that are associated with educational disadvantage and early school leaving. Primary schools participating in Giving Children an Even Break are in receipt of a range of additional supports including teacher posts and other non-teaching supports to be targeted at disadvantaged pupils. The additional supports provided reflect the level of concentration of pupils from educationally disadvantaged backgrounds in each school invited to participate in the programme. These levels of disadvantage were established as a result of a comprehensive survey of primary schools carried out by the Educational Research Centre, ERC, in March-April 2000 at the request of my Department.
Resources are allocated to schools on a sliding scale and schools with greater proportions of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are allocated proportionally more resources than those with fewer numbers of such pupils. Every participating school is entitled to a special €63.49per capita grant in respect of the percentage of pupils with disadvantaged characteristics and schools receive a minimum of €952.30 per annum.
The school referred to by the Deputy is included in the urban dimension of Giving Children an Even Break. The school is benefiting from supplementary funding to provide additional educational supports for the children concerned. The school was not considered eligible for additional teaching staff, based on the level of concentration of at risk pupils in the school as reflected in the Educational Research Centre survey outcome. My Department is currently examining an application from the school for increased resource teaching support for Traveller children and contact will be made with the school authorities when this process is complete.
