Background
Pupil premium is additional funding received by schools for each pupil from a disadvantaged background. It’s allocated to schools based on the number of children who come from low-income families – this is defined as those who are currently known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM). This is one of the government’s key education policies. It’s based on findings that show that, as a group, children who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in time have consistently lower educational attainment than those who have never been eligible.
It’s important to know that a pupil does not need to have a school dinner, but the parents/ carers should check to see if they are entitled.
It also includes pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years; children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months; children adopted from the care system and children where a parent serves in the armed forces.
At around £1,300 per eligible pupil, this money is for schools to decide how to use in order to improve educational attainment of children from less privileged backgrounds. The pupil premium has the potential to have a great impact on the attainment, and future life chances of pupils.
How we spend the pupil premium
Our Pupil Premium Plans show how we’re using the pupil premium funding:
At Tranmere Park we know that all children are different and have different needs. Therefore, if we feel that a child would benefit in a different way, we will invest pupil premium and support that child. (This means some children may benefit from adult support in a variety of ways, such as small group learning to stretch and challenge.)
We review our Pupil Premium strategy annually and use the information from this to plan for the following year.
A large proportion of our funding is spent on additional classroom support. Staff are aware of which children are eligible for the pupil premium and provide additional, frequent targeted support for these pupils. Teachers are required to detail different support activities: what the learning objective is, how often the support will happen, who will lead the support (either the teacher or the teaching assistant) and who will benefit from the support. Children with pupil premium must be part of this.
What impact has it had?
We monitor the outcomes of our support on an ongoing basis. As we have a very low percentage of children entitled to FSM, publishing data on individual pupils would mean that children were identifiable, however, we thoroughly track all children’s learning internally and all PPG pupils made excellent progress.
Governor’s view
I am the governor with the responsibility for children in receipt of pupil premium funding. I have received a full briefing from the head teacher explaining what plans are in place to support these children and how to develop their language, their reading, and their social and emotional learning. As the percentage of children in receipt of pupil premium is very low, it is inappropriate (for data protection reasons), to comment in detail on outcomes. However, after my briefing from the head teacher, I know that each child in receipt of pupil premium has a clear and individual plan to make sure they are supported and make good progress.
C. Napoli, Pupil Premium Governor, June 2023.