Study: Poorer children receive more education funding

Independent researchers say that poorer children taking their GCSEs in 2010 had almost ten thousand pounds more spent on their school years than wealthier children.

The study says this represents a complete turnaround from previous generations when richer families took the lion's share of education budgets.

The change is a consequence of policy since the early 2000s targeting money at disadvantaged children, and also because many poorer youngsters are now staying on for A-levels and university and so benefiting longer from education funding.

The researchers say this has been a remarkable shift in the shape of public-service spending.