The Pupil Premium is an allocation of additional funding provided to schools to support specific groups of children who are vulnerable to possible underachievement. These include pupils who are entitled to free school meals, those looked after by the local authority and the children of armed service personnel. The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.
You can register your child for Pupil Premium if you get any of these benefits:
- Income-based & Contribution-based JSA or ESA on an equal basis
- Income Support (IS)
- Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (IBJSA)
- Income-related employment and support allowance (IRESA)
- Child Tax Credit, provided they are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual income as assessed by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, that does not exceed £16,190
- Guaranteed Element of State Pension Credit
- Where a parent is entitled to Working Tax Credit run-on (the payment someone receives for a further four weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
- Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
Ring 0345 155 1019 to apply for Free School Meals, or click here for an application form.
Additional Funding for Looked After Children
The DFE have advised us that extra Pupil Premium Funding of £1900 will be available for children in the following categories:
- has been looked after for 1 day or more
- has been adopted from care
- has left care under:
- a special guardianship order
- a residence order
- a child arrangement order
Guidance from the DFE says that schools can only claim this money where the parent self-declares their child's status to the school, providing supporting evidence (e.g. an adoption order).
If your child qualifies for this extra funding then please speak to Mrs Gilmour-White in confidence so that we can make the claim and your child can benefit from the additional support we will provide.
Planned spending and actions for 2016-17 academic year
We recognise that not all pupils who receive Free School Meals will be socially disadvantaged, and that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered for Free School Meals. Pupil Premium funding may be used by the school to support any pupil or groups of pupils that the school identifies as being socially disadvantaged.
At St Andrew's we plan to use the additional funding in the following ways:
- Support for residential payments and subsidised curriculum enrichment.
- Release class assistants to work 1-1 in KS2 with children on boosting writing and maths skills.
- To continue to narrow the gap to national expectation for those pupils in receipt of pupil premium through TA intervention.
Estimated Pupil Premium Grant Allocations 2016/17
Number of pupils eligible for PPG = 12
Estimated PPG Income £14493
We carefully monitor the progress of all children, including those receiving pupil premium funding and these results can be found on the DfE website.