What is Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium is an amount of money provided to schools in addition to the main school’s funding. It is allocated according to the number of pupils on roll from Reception to Year 6 who fall into one of the following categories:

• Children whose parent is registered as receiving a benefit that entitles them to free school meals. This is not the same as receiving a free school meal as your child is in KS1.
• ‘Looked After’ children
• Adopted children
• Children whose parents are members of the Armed Services.

The purpose of the Pupil Premium funding is to reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers. For more information on Pupil Premium please visit the Department for Education’s website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium/pupil-premium.

How do I know if my child is eligible to receive pupil premium funding?

Free School Meals

The most common reason a pupil receives Pupil Premium funding at our school is because a parent is registered as receiving a benefit that entitles them to free school meals. If you receive any of the following benefits, your child may be eligible for pupil premium funding:

• Income Support
• Income based Jobseeker’s Allowance Child Tax Credit (provided you are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit) and have an annual income that does not exceed £16,190.
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit

 

All pupils in Reception/KS1 will receive a free school meal under the Universal Infant Free School Meals Scheme. However, if you receive the benefits above, your child can still receive pupil premium funding, which will enable them to receive a free school meal when they move into KS2. For the school to receive this funding, you must fill in all the details on the free school meal form available upon request from the office.

Service Children

Children of armed service personnel are also eligible. Pupils are eligible for the premium if they meet the following criteria:

• One of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces.
• One of their parents served in the regular armed forces in the last 3 years.
• One of their parents died while serving in the armed forces and the pupil is in receipt of a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and the War Pensions Scheme (WPS).

‘Looked After’ Children

Children who have been in local authority care for one day or more are also eligible for pupil premium funding. Funding for these pupils is not paid to the school; it is paid to the virtual school head (VSH) in the local authority that looks after the child. VSHs are responsible for managing pupil premium funding for looked after children.

Previously ‘Looked After’ Children

Schools will also receive funding for each pupil who has left local-authority care because of one of the following:

• Adoption
• A special guardianship order
• A child arrangements order
• A residence order

If you are eligible to receive Pupil Premium, please complete the application form on the reverse of this letter and return to the school office as soon as possible. This information will be treated confidentially.

Please note that the government state: “School leaders are best placed to assess their pupils’ needs and use the funding to improve attainment, drawing on evidence of effective practise. It is up to school leaders to decide how to spend the pupil premium. Evidence suggests that pupil premium spending is most effective when schools use a tiered approach, targeting spending across 3 areas: teaching, targeted support and wider strategies.” This means that the funding we receive is not ring-fenced to the individual pupils in receipt of pupil premium, and is used to benefit the cohort of disadvantaged pupils.

Details of our proposed pupil premium spending can be found in the strategy document below.