What is Pupil Premium?
The pupil premium is additional government funding given to schools to help them tackle problems faced by socially disadvantaged children and to close the attainment gap between those children and their peers. Schools are free to use the pupil premium as they see fit but are accountable for how they have used the additional funding to support low income families.
How is Pupil Premium allocated?
The main basis of allocation is an amount paid in respect of each child known to have been eligible for free school meals at any time during the last six years. The principle behind this is that as a group, children eligible for free school meals have consistently lower educational attainment than those who have never been eligible for free school meals. In addition, amounts are paid for looked after children and for children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces.
See below for further information.
Our principles for allocating Pupil Premium
We have adopted the following principles for ensuring that the use of pupil premium is appropriate to the needs of our School:
- We recognise that teaching and learning must meet the needs of all pupils.
- We recognise that there has been a history of lower attainment for socially disadvantaged children. However, not all socially disadvantaged children are in receipt of free school meals or are low attainers. Moreover, low attainment occurs in other social groups and some free school meals children are high attainers. A carefully balanced approach is therefore required.
- Use of pupil premium is subject to continuous close monitoring to ensure that its use is effective.
Pupil Premium Impact Statements
See below for more information.
Success criteria and monitoring
To ensure the effective use of Pupil Premium we monitor progress made by Pupil Premium children compared with progress made by all children.