The Pupil Premium is an allocation of additional funding provided to schools to support pupils who are entitled to free school meals, looked after by the local authority or were adopted from being looked after by the local authority or children of armed service personnel.

Nationally there is a gap in the attainment of children who have free school meals and those who do not. In response to this the Department for Education provides additional funding for all schools to ensure that these children meet or exceed minimum age related expectations.

At St Mary’s Primary School, supporting every individual to ‘be the best they can be’ is embedded in our school visions, core values and daily practice. We are using the additional funding to be able to provide individually targetted support for our pupil premium children.

Schools are required to report on the amount of funding received, how this is used and its impact. 

Please read the information attached which gives details of our Pupil Premium Grant and how we allocate the funding.

www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information

At St Mary's Church of England Primary School we believe that all our children have an equal entitlement, and should have equal opportunities to thrive.

The school receives funding from the Government to support it in trying to meet this aspiration. This is known as the Pupil Premium.

Pupil premium is additional funding, from the government, provided to schools for supporting pupils from low income families to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as all other children. There are three categories of children that qualify for pupil premium:

•Children who are eligible for free school meals (FSM)

•Looked after children

•Services Premium children

It is for schools to decide how the Pupil premium is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils for whom they are responsible. The Pupil Premium is allocated to schools that are known to have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any time in the last six years. Each of these pupils will attract £1345. Services children attract £310 and Looked After Children will receive a maximum of £2345. Schools have the freedom to spend the Premium, which is additional to the underlying schools budget, in a way they think will best support the raising of attainment for the most vulnerable pupils.

At St Mary's Church of England Primary School a small proportion of children are eligible for pupil premium.

All our staff and governors accept responsibility for ‘socially disadvantaged’ pupils and are committed to meeting their needs within a caring environment. The targeted and strategic use of pupil premium will support us in achieving our vision.

 

Principles

We seek to ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all of the pupils;

• We seek to ensure that appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups, this includes ensuring that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed;
• In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged;
• We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being in need of intervention and support;
• Pupil premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals.
• We use a range of sources including The Sutton Trust, The Education Endowment Foundation and previous successes to inform our spending of the Pupil Premium funding.

How do we evaluate impact?

• We rigorously evaluate our own performance throughout the year which includes tracking progress over time to identify any underperformance. We then implement strategies and interventions to promote improvement.
• We use Internal and National data to track attainment and progress.
• In order to evaluate thoroughly we use a wide range of data such as: pupils work, assessment data, observations, book scrutiny’s, teacher and pupil conferencing. Pupil progress meetings are held to analyse pupil’s performance and identify their next steps.
• Interventions are monitored for progress and evaluation.
• Our school have moderation meetings between year groups, Key Stages and other schools to ensure accuracy of assessment.

 

Pupil Premium (Free School Meals Benefit)

The FSM benefit is available to any pupil whose parents fulfil the criteria given below. It’s really important that all eligible families apply for the FSM benefit (even if they have packed lunch) as the school is given additional funds, known as pupil premium, to support those children with their learning in school and to assist with other school costs. This can include: 1-1 support, extra reading, phonics and contributions towards trips and enrichment activities.

Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:

• 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)

 New application details North Somerset Council is replacing the old free school meal paper application forms with a new online checker. Parents will be able to apply online and get an instant result. The system will generate a letter that parents can print off and give to schools to show eligibility. Where parents do not have printers, we suggest forwarding the letter via email to the school, or showing it to school staff on a smart phone. Parents will need to reapply every school holiday (so 6 times per year) and eligibility will last for the whole school term. Please apply via North Somerset Free School Meals Link if you think you may be eligible.