What is the Pupil Premium?
You may be aware that the government introduced ‘The Pupil Premium Grant’ in April 2011 and schools are allocated additional funding into their school budget.
The premium provides funding specifically for children from lower income families or service families who have registered. The purpose of the grant into schools is to raise achievement and improve outcomes for these children. Now that all children in EYFS/KS1 are entitled to free school meals, it is important that families register for pupil premium funding as schools are not automatically informed of entitlement.
At Fossebrook Primary School we will be able to use the grant in a number of ways, whilst ensuring it is carefully targeted for those eligible children in order to help them achieve their potential both academically and socially. The main ways in which the money can be spent are:
- To fund or part-fund the provision of Teaching Assistant support for individuals, small groups and classes to help children to achieve their academic potential.
- To fund the provision of specific resources to support and improve achievement.
- To fund the provision of Teaching Assistant support for non-academic interventions to help increase self-esteem, develop social skills, improve relationships, confidence etc.
- To subsidise school uniform, music lessons, extra-curricular activities, trips, visitors and performers to school.
The Department of Education website is a good source of additional information:
Department of Education – Pupil Premium
Who Can Apply For Pupil Premium?
If you receive any of the benefits listed below, then you should apply for pupil premium funding:
- Income Support
- income-based Jobseekers Allowance
- income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit
How To Apply
You can apply via the County Council or through us: please give your details in confidence to our office manager, Pippa Whitmore.
Pupil Premium Reports
Below, you can find all the pupil premium reports from the school.
Pupil_Premium_Strategy_2022/23
Pupil Premium Review of 2020/21 and Strategy 2021/22
Pupil Premium Strategy 2020/21
Pupil Premium Review 2019/20
Pupil Premium Strategy 2019/20
Pupil Premium Strategy 2018/19
Pupil Premium Strategy 2017/18
What is Pupil Premium?
The Pupil Premium was introduced in April 2011 and is additional funding that the government gives to schools for each pupil on roll where they are deemed to be disadvantaged. The money must be spent on that pupil to support their education, but it is for the school to determine how it is spent. The Department of Education website is a good source of additional information:
Department of Education – Pupil Premium
Why is the Government providing the Pupil Premium?
Poverty or low income is the single most important factor in predicting a child’s future life chances, with many pupils having low attainment by the time they leave school at age 16. The Government believes that the Pupil Premium is the best way to address these underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.
Who receives the Pupil Premium?
Pupil Premium is allocated to pupils in school year groups from Reception to Year 11 from low income families who are registered for FSM, or who have been registered for FSM at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6’), together with children that have been in care continuously for 6 months or more.
What is the Service Premium?
The Service Premium grant is for pupils who have a parent serving in the armed services. Unlike the Pupil Premium, this grant is not solely for raising attainment but for providing additional (mainly pastoral) support.
Who receives the Service Premium?
Pupils with a parent currently serving in the armed services and supporting their family, pupils who have a parent who died in action and those whose parents have left the service since April 2011 for other reasons, including injury. To be eligible, the parent must be supporting their family, so where they are separated or divorced a pupil will not be eligible.
How do parents register their child’s entitlement for Pupil Premium?
Parents must apply for free school meals via the County Council or their child’ school, this is a quick and simple process. Telephone with your National Insurance Number, date of birth, name and child’s details and an eligibility check can be carried out using the Department for Education’s Eligibility Checking System, this will confirm if details have been matched or not. It will not tell us what benefits you are in receipt of, dates when a benefit was awarded or say how much you receive. Confirmation will be sent to you and the school within 5-10 working days.
Pupils do not have to take up their entitlement to a free meal but Local Authorities and schools recommend that they do. The government is made aware of each pupil claiming FSMs each term via the school census so they have up-to-date information on those eligible.
How much are the Pupil Premium Grants worth?
The Pupil Premium for the financial year 2012-13 was £623, it increased to £900 for the 2013-14 financial year, and will increase to £1,300 for 2014/15. The Service Premium was £250 and is now £300 This is significant additional money for schools to spend on supporting disadvantaged pupils and schools are very keen to ensure that all eligible pupils are ‘signed up’. Grants are based on those pupils included in the January schools’ census.
How will schools spend the grant?
Schools must spend the grant for the educational benefit of their eligible pupils. The grant can be spent on services that benefit pupils at the school or their families, in the locality in which the school is situated. Pupil Premium grants can be carried forward to the next financial year if all the money is not spent in the year in which it is allocated.
What is the role of the local authority?
Local authorities are responsible for passing on the Pupil or Service Premium to maintained schools and for managing its distribution in respect of ‘Looked After’ children. The Education Funding Agency, not the local authority, allocates the grant to Academy Schools but the eligibility criteria is exactly the same. However, neither organisation is responsible for how schools spend the Pupil Premium, except for pupils in care, where the Local Authority has responsibility for their wellbeing.
What obligations are placed on the school?
Schools will need to monitor the impact of their selected approaches to improve provision for pupils entitled to the Pupil or Service Premium. The Pupil and Service Premium is not ring-fenced and schools are free to spend it as they wish to improve pupils’ attainment. Parents should be aware that school staff are bound by ‘confidentiality rules’ on all matters pertinent to pupils’ educational needs, their care and health needs and their wellbeing.
How are schools held accountable?
The Ofsted Inspection Framework ensures that their inspectors focus on the attainment of vulnerable pupils and in particular those who attract the Pupil and Service Premium. They have published a series of reports about how the pupil premium can be spent, these can be found on their website at:
The Department for Education’s performance tables detail the achievement of those pupils entitled to FSM and the Pupil Premium Grant(s). Individual pupils will never be identified through published information, this will only relate to groups of pupils, and in small schools numbers may not be published. Individual school information can be found on the Department for Education’s website at:
Department of Education – School Performance
Who should parents contact for further information?
Contact the school administrator if you would like to find out more about registering your child for free school meals. This information will be held confidentially by the school. The administrator should also be able to direct you to any reports the school has produced relating to the use of the pupil premium. The head teacher or the Chair of the governing body on behalf of the governors can offer further information to those parents enquiring about the use of the Pupil Premium.
How the Pupil Premium is used at Redlands Community Primary School?
At Fossebrook Primary School we have looked very carefully at how we can spend the pupil premium funding to ensure positive outcomes. We have looked at the needs for individual pupils and how we can meet those needs. We have a full time family support worker whose remit is working with children and families who may require additional support from ourselves and also outside agencies. We have a learning support assistant whose only focus is working with pupil premium pupils and monitoring their progress. The school offers funding support for extra-curricular sports clubs, music lessons and school trips and residentials. We are very pleased that we can demonstrate a trend of ‘narrowing the gap’ between the rates of progress of pupils receiving the pupil premium pupils are their peers.
We use our pupil premium funding to:
- TBC
- TBC
- TBC
- TBC
- TBC
- TBC
Irrespective of ability, we recognise the importance of ensuring this funding is specifically used for FSM and ‘looked after’ children at Redlands Community Primary School and we continually strive to see improvement and the ‘gap narrowed’.
Our assessment of the quality of this provision will be based on continual monitoring and regular progress meetings with the teachers of the small groups.
Proposed Pupil Premium Expenditure for 2015/2016
From 1st September 2013, all pupils eligible for Pupil Premium (i.e. FSM pupils, those who have been FSM pupils in the past 6 years, children in care and pupils who have parents in the Armed Forces) will be allocated £900 to the school per year.
The estimated total amount of finance received by Redlands Community Primary School would therefore be £TBC.
The document below provides a breakdown of how we intend to use this finance in 2015/16:
Proposed Pupil Premium Expenditure for 2015/2016 (TBC)
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