Pupil Premium
Flourishing Together To Serve.’ (1 Corinthians 12: 4-28)
Our welcoming, spiritually vibrant and inclusive, church school aspires to fulfil the potential of all. We seek to enable every unique child to flourish in body, mind and spirit; gaining wisdom and knowledge and developing gifts and talents. We nurture and empower children to serve as active citizens in God’s diverse, modern world; guided and strengthened by our distinctively Christian values of Hope, Courage, Love, Thankfulness, Forgiveness and Trust.
We strive to ensure all students flourish regardless of their circumstance. Our moral purpose, as educators, is to ensure every individual child is given the best possible chance of achieving their potential, and as a Church school we take pride in nurturing the needs of each individual pupil.
High expectations of all children, regardless of their background are held by all staff and governors. Not all pupil premium underachieve but statistically they are most at risk of doing so. Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.
As a result,how we will spend the funding we receive has been researched to provide high impact, measurable outcomes in closing the ‘gap’.
What is the Pupil Premium?
The Secretary of State for Education lays down the following terms and conditions on which assistance is given in relation to the pupil premium grant (PPG) payable to schools and local authorities for the financial year beginning 1 April 2020.
PPG provides funding for two separate policies:
- raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities to reach their potential
- supporting children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces
The Department of Education website is : https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium/pupil-premium
Our current pupil premium strategy, works towards closing the gap by identifying the key barriers to learning for children entitled to pupil premium.
Our latest Pupil Premium Strategy and previous strategies can be viewed in the files section on this page.
Who receives the Pupil Premium?
Ever 6 free school meals |
Children adopted from care or who have left care |
Ever 6 service child |
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The pupil premium for 2020 to 2021 will include pupils recorded in the January 2020 school census who have had a recorded period of FSM eligibility since May 2014, as well as those first recorded as eligible at January 2020. Even if your child is in the infants and receives universal free school meals or is in the juniors and chooses to eat a packed lunch, please register for Free School Meals if your child is eligible so that our school receives the correct funding to support your child’s learning. Please also complete an eligibility check (see below) if your child has been entitled to Free School Meals at any time in the last 6 years. |
The pupil premium for 2020 to 2021 will include pupils recorded in the January 2020 school census and alternative provision census, who were looked after by an English or Welsh local authority immediately before being adopted, or who left local authority care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order). These are collectively referred to as post-LAC in these conditions of grant. The grant will be allocated as set out below.Pupil Premium for permanently placed children (often referred to as Pupil Premium Plus, or PP+) was introduced in 2014 in recognition that children who ceased to be looked after as a result of adoption, a Special Guardianship Order (SGO) or a Care Arrangements Order (CAO) often require extra support and help in school in view of their early life experiences. Adoption UK have produced a useful guide for parents which can be found here. Adoption UK introduction to PP+
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For the purposes of these grant conditions, Ever 6 service child means a pupil recorded in the January 2020 school census who was eligible for the service child premium since the January 2015 census as well as those recorded as a service child for the first time on the January 2020 school census.
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.
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What should parents do if their child is eligible for Pupil Premium?
Parents can apply for free school meals by contacting the school office.
Parents can check their child's eligibility for Pupil Premium via a free, confidential online eligibility checker. Details of how to access this are available from the school office. This is a quick and simple process. All you need is your National Insurance Number, date of birth, name and child’s details. An eligibility check is carried out using the Eligibility Checking System, this will confirm if details have been matched or not. It will not tell school 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 to the school.
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.
Children aged 5-16 who have been adopted from care from England and Wales attract PP+ funding for their schools. Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) is available for children of pre-school age. If your child is eligible, you will need to make sure that you have declared your child’s legal status to the school and provided documentary evidence prior to the Autumn census (first Thursday in October). A copy of the adoption order will be sufficient, and you may remove confidential or identifying information if you need to, as long as enough information is left for the school to be able to verify your child’s adopted status.
Service personnel with children (reception to year 6) should notify school of their children’s service status to ensure they are recorded prior to the next autumn census (first Thursday in October) in order to qualify for Service pupil premium.
How will schools spend the grant?
Schools must spend the grant for the educational benefit of their eligible pupil. 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.
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. However, the local authority is not 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.
How are parents informed about the use of the Pupil Premium grants?
The school’s governing body must publish information on the school- website every year on the Pupil and Service Premium expenditure. For those parents that are not able to access the internet, a paper copy of this information can be provided by contacting the school office. It should detail the funding received for the current academic year, as well as details of how it will be spent; there should also be details of how the previous academic year’s allocation was spent. The report should include:
- A brief description of the school, its catchment area, numbers on roll, the percentage of pupils in receipt of Free School meals, ‘Looked After’ and Post Looked After children, and pupils from Service Families.
- A brief explanation of what the pupil premium is for, an explanation of the school’s freedom to decide how to spend the additional funding, the allocation and their plans to spend it.
- A brief summary of how the school routinely plans and provides to meet the needs of all pupils.
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?
LOL 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.
Who should parents contact for further information?
Please contact the school office if you would like to find out more about registering your child for free school meals or checking eligibility for Pupil Premium funding. This information will be held confidentially by the school. The school office should also be able to direct you to any reports the school has produced relating to the use of the pupil premium.Please contact the school office if you would like help completing the online eligibility check.
The Pupil Premium Lead (Mrs Mupesa), Designated Teacher for LAC or Post LAC children (Mrs D Gallagher), Headteacher (Mrs D Gallagher) the Pupil Premium Govennor (Mrs F Rowley) or the Chair of Governors (Ms B Perkes) on behalf of the governors can offer further information to those parents penquiring about the use of the Pupil Premium.
