Those who are familiar with Children, their World, their Education: final report of the Cambridge Primary Review will know that its contributing authors decided that royalties from the bookʼs sales should go to organisations that support children who are vulnerable, marginalised or otherwise disadvantaged (see the reportʼs Introduction, pxvi). Their decision reflected one of CPRʼs key recommendations:
While recent concerns should be heeded about the pressures to which todayʼs children are subject, and the undesirable values, influences and experiences to which many are exposed, the main focus of policy should continue to be on narrowing the gaps in income, housing, care, risk, opportunity and educational attainment suffered by a significant minority of children, rather than on prescribing the character of the lives of the majority. The governmentʼs efforts to narrow the gap in all outcomes between vulnerable children and the rest deserves the strongest possible support. (Children, their World, their Education, p 488).
CPR argued this not just because such inequalities represent a massive social blight but also because the evidence shows that the maps of social disadvantage and educational underachievement tend to coincide. (The reference above to ʻthe governmentʼs effortsʼ related to Labour initiatives such as the Childrenʼs Plan and Narrowing the Gap. The present government has introduced the Pupil Premium).