What is Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium was introduced by the Department for Education (DfE) in 2011, as additional funding for pupils who received Free School Meals and who are Looked After Children. This is because the DfE have recognised that good education is the key to improving young people’s life chances. This is particularly true for children from low-income families, or who are Looked After Children, who are far less likely to leave schools with good GCSE results than other children. The Pupil Premium, using additional resources from outside the School’s Budget, is intended to address the current inequalities by ensuring that funding reaches the pupils who need it most. The DfE have stated that schools have the right to spend this funding as they see fit based upon their knowledge of pupil needs.

Pupil Premium at Selling CE Primary School

At Selling CEP School we believe in inspiring and engaging pupils through an exciting curriculum offer. We strive for achievement for all our pupils. Our pastoral care and rigorous monitoring and tracking of all pupils helps us to identify any pupils who are at risk of not making sufficient progress and have helped us to plan and implement good intervention strategies. With smaller numbers of pupil premium eligible pupils, value for money is central to sustained improvements in both well-being and academic achievement. We take an individualised approach to Pupil Premium spending as different pupils benefit from varying approaches and enrichments. Recognising some of these differences we have been very clear in our vision that, although achievement in academic subjects is vital, learning can happen in a range of guises and pupil well-being, self-worth and belief that they can are imperative for achievement. Therefore, our belief in enabling opportunities in a wide range of experiences such as music lessons, the arts and sporting opportunities are integral to opportunity and entitlement.

Other documents within the pages for each year below include a pupil premium strategy document which sets out expenditure for this academic year and the evidence base used in making these decisions.

Who is eligible?

• Children in care who have been looked after continuously for more than 6 months.
• A service premium is available for children whose parents are serving in the armed forces.
• Pupils eligible for free school meals.

To be eligible for free school meals the child’s family must be in receipt of one of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

• Children who get paid these benefits directly, instead of through a parent or guardian, can also get free school meals.

  Your child may also get free school meals if you get any of these benefits and your child is both:

• younger than the compulsory age for starting school
• in full-time education

Kent County Council have launched an online Free School Meals application service including an eligibility assessment to establish whether you have an entitlement to Free School Meals. This can be accessed at http://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children/schools/free-school-meals.

The school will be notified automatically of any successful applications.

If you are unsure as to whether your child is entitled to the Pupil Premium, it is worth registering them to find out. If successful, it will have a direct impact on the funding the school receives and we will maximise the support we can provide.

If you would like support with applying please speak to Miss Clark, our Family Support Worker who is often out on the gate or available by ringing the school office.

How we use the funding

Our aim is for those pupils eligible for Pupil Premium (PP) funding to achieve better than the average for “all” pupils nationally by the time they leave at the end of Y6.

Pupil Premium funding will be used to:

• Support the raising of attainment of PP eligible pupils through accelerated progress, so that we diminish the difference between the school’s PP pupils and the 'all' pupils both within school and nationally.
• Continue to accelerate progress for PP pupils.
•  Increase parental engagement with their child’s education and with the school.
• Improve attendance.
• Increase opportunities for PP pupils and broaden their experiences.

We review the impact of our Pupil Premium funding annually, we use assessment data and our well-being toolkit to measure the impact of our funding. 

For more details on the Pupil Premium please visit:  http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/premium