The Department for Education has chosen Impetus Trust and the education charity Sutton Trust to manage a £125m Education Endowment Fund, created to help disadvantaged children in the poorest-performing schools in the UK.

The Trusts will be responsible for giving grants to projects which use bold and innovative methods to boost the attainment of disadvantaged pupils in underperforming schools. Bids will be welcomed from a range of groups including teachers, charities, local authorities and academy sponsors.

This new fund draws on President Barack Obama’s ‘Race to the Top’ programme. The pioneering scheme invites American states to apply for funding to trail-blaze bold and innovative approaches in schools.

Secretary of State for Education, Michael Gove, said: “I am delighted that these leaders in social mobility will take forward this pioneering new fund for our poorest children. Few have done more to challenge educational inequality in this country than the Sutton Trust.

"It is unacceptable that just 40 pupils out of 80,000 on free school meals made it into Oxbridge last year. Opportunity must become more equal. This is why we must press ahead with our reforms and focus resources on improving the education of the poorest children.”

Daniela Barone Soares, chief executive of Impetus Trust, added: “We are delighted to be one of the drivers behind an investment of this scale with such potential to make a difference for disadvantaged children. The gap in attainment between disadvantaged children and their better-off peers results in an impoverished society, and has existed for far too long. We look forward to applying our expertise to develop and scale up education projects so that many more disadvantaged students are able to get the support they need to succeed.”