What is Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers.  The amount received is dependent on the number of children who are eligible and have claimed for free school meals at any time in the last six years (this categorisation changed in 2012) or have been in care for six months or longer.  All schools are required to report on the amount of funding and how this is being used.

Our Principles

• All members of staff, governors and teaching assistants accept responsibility for ‘socially disadvantaged’ pupils and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within a caring Christian environment. This is an essential, integral part of the spiritual development of the whole school community. As with every child in our care, a child who is considered to be ‘socially disadvantaged’ is valued, respected and entitled to develop his/her full potential, irrespective of need.
• Staff are deployed effectively to work with pupils who need the most support and training is provided where this is necessary to support pupils’ learning.
• We have systems in place which carefully monitor, manage and support good behaviour and attendance for all our pupils.
• Teachers and leaders use data to identify pupils’ learning needs and review progress regularly. Underperformance is addressed quickly through additional support.
• We recognise that not all children who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged and we also recognise that not all children that are disadvantaged have free school meals. We allocate Pupil Premium funding to support any child the school has identified as being socially disadvantaged and should be making better progress.
• We will allocate Pupil Premium funding after a needs analysis to identify priority groups and individuals.

How is it spent?

Schools are given a pupil premium for:

• Children who have qualified for free school meals at any point in the past six years. The school receives £1300 for each of these children.
• Children who have been looked after under local authority care for more than one day. These children are awarded a premium of £1900.

Schools can choose how to spend their pupil premium money, as they are best placed to identify what would be of most benefit to the children who are eligible.

Common ways in which schools spend their pupil premium fund include:

• Extra one-to-one or small-group support for children within the classroom.
• Employing extra teaching assistants to work with classes.
• Running catch-up sessions before or after school, for example for children who need extra help with maths or literacy.
• Running a school breakfast club to improve attendance.
• Providing extra tuition for able children who receive the pupil premium, for example in preparation for Level 6 SATs.
• Providing music lessons for children whose families would be unable to pay for them.
• Funding educational trips and visits.
• Paying for additional help such as speech and language therapy or family therapy.
• Funding English classes for children who speak another language at home.
• Investing in resources that boost children’s learning, such as laptops or tablets.

How are schools accountable for the spending of Pupil Premium?

It is for schools to decide how the pupil premium allocated to their school is spent. Schools will be held accountable for their use of the additional funding to support pupils from low-income families and the impact this has on educational attainment. School performance tables now include a ‘Narrowing the Gap’ measure showing how disadvantaged children perform in each school. Since September 2012, schools have had to publish online details of their pupil premium allocation and their plans to spend it in the current year.

How can St George’s receive your child’s Pupil Premium

Your child may be eligible for free school meals – and accordingly pupil premium – if you receive any of the following benefits:

• Income support
• Income-based job seekers’ allowance
• Income-related employment and support allowance
• Support under Part IV of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The guaranteed element of state pension credit
• Child tax credit, provided that you are not also entitled to working tax credit and have an annual gross income of £16,190 or less
• Universal credit

The school office will be able to tell you what you need to do to register your child as eligible.

All children in Reception and Years 1 and 2 qualify for free school meals, regardless of their family income, but only the children who would have qualified for free meals under the above income-based criteria will receive the pupil premium.

If your child qualifies for free school meals, it’s important that you tell the school office – even if they take a packed lunch – as this enables the school to claim pupil premium.

For more details on the pupil premium please visit: www.gov.uk/guidance/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and-alternative-provision-settings