Pupil Premium Funding
Dear Parents,
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 four categories of children that qualify for pupil premium:
- Children who are eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) or have been during previous 6 years (Ever 6)
- Looked After Children
- Children Adopted from Care or have left care
- Service (Armed Forces) Children
The Government believes that the Pupil Premium funding is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between ‘disadvantaged children’ and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.
The Government are not dictating how schools should spend this money, but are clear that schools will need to employ the strategies that they know will support their pupils to increase their attainment, and ‘narrow the gap’.
All our staff and governors accept responsibility for ‘socially disadvantaged’ pupils and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within a caring environment. The targeted and strategic use of pupil premium will support us in achieving our vision.
We will ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all pupils and 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 identified as being socially disadvantaged.
As part of the additional provision made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups, the Governors of the school will ensure that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed through termly pupil progress meetings.
It will be the responsibility of the Headteacher and Link Governor to report to Governors outlining:
The allocation of Funding
The provision that has been made
The impact of this Provision
The Governors of the school will ensure that there is an annual statement to parents on how the Pupil Premium funding has been used to address the issue of ‘narrowing the gap’, for socially disadvantaged pupils. This task will be carried out within the requirements published by the Department for Education and will appear on our school website.
The following document details how Hillside Primary School uses the Pupil Premium funding effectively.
Reports prior to 2021 are available upon request from the Headteacher.