Paul Marshall's report on Tackling Educational Inequality, released by CentreForum on Tuesday and available for download here, has received widespread coverage in the national and local media, ranging from the marvellously titled 'School's Not Out' piece on GMTV to articles by Jon Boone in the FT ('Schools study backs "pupil premium"') and Richard Garner in the Belfast Telegraph ('Schools "should get reward for taking poor pupils"').

Over at the Liberal England blog, Jonathan Calder wonders whether the money might not be better spent on improving the quality of teaching within existing school hours, rather than extending the school week. ('CentreForum: Saturday lessons for poor children'). However, the report has received a firm endorsement from Kate Green, chief executive of the Child Poverty Action Group, who commented in a CPAG press release:

"We strongly welcome the approach taken by Centre Forum, which recognises the need to tackle the inequality of school pupils at source. The proposal for extra schools funding to be delivered to the most disadvantaged through a 'Pupil Premium' is an important step in the right direction.

"Funding models that give schools extra resources according to individual pupils' needs are essential in the fight to end child poverty, but not enough on their own. Income inequality must be addressed too, or the poorest pupils will continue to come through the school gates with more barriers to learning than a pupil premium alone can fully compensate for. We hope that Liberal Democrat party members will not only endorse the 'pupil premium' proposal, but will support the extra investment of £4 billion that the Institute for Fiscal Studies says is needed to meet the Government's target of halving child poverty by 2010."