Pupil Premium

Help yourself, help your school, claim free school meals: 

Taking up free school meals has benefits for everyone:

• children get a healthy nutritious meal
• schools can benefit directly by receiving £1320 for each eligible primary school child, per school year
• schools can benefit directly by receiving £2300 per child, per year, for children in care 
• schools can benefir directly by receiving £300 per child, per year, children recorded as being from service families 
• families entitled to free school meals could save more than £400 per child per year.

Apply online:  http://www.slough.gov.uk/schools-and-learning/free-school-meals.aspx  

The information below outlines how we use the Pupil Premium Money to support the learning of children in our school.

What is the Pupil Premium? The National Picture

The Pupil Premium was introduced by the Government in April 2011. It was designed to give additional money to support schools in raising the attainment of disavantaged children.

For more details on the Pupil Premium please visit: 

https://www.gov.uk/topic/schools-colleges-childrens-services/support-for-children-young-people

How to claim your child's Pupil Premium

Children qualify for free school meals – and accordingly pupil premium – if you receive any of the following benefits:

• Universal credit (provided you have a net income of £7400 or less)
• Income support
• Income-based jobseekers’ 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

These benefits have now been rolled into a single benefit, called Universal Credit. 

Universal Credit is being rolled out, with an expected completion date of March 2022. All pupils who were eligible for free school meals up to April 2018 will continue to receive free school meals during this period.

Once Universal Credit is fully rolled out, any existing claimants who no longer meet the eligiblilty criteria will still qualify for free school meals until the end of their current stage of education (i.e. primary or secondary).

Children who are or have been in care, and children who have a parent who is or was in the armed forces, are also entitled to pupil premium.

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

Financial support

If your child is within the Pupil Premium Cohort (Free School Meals, Ever6 rule, Child in Care, parent active in the armed forces, died in action or left due to injury) then subject to approval we are able to fund up to 50% of the cost of any school event that links to the curriculum whether inside or outside of school. We are also able to supply any revision books your child would benefit from or peripatetic lessons.

If you have a query regarding Pupil Premium please contact Mrs O'Dwyer, School Business Manager for further support.

The purpose of the Pupil Premium is to help schools to provide targeted support for vulnerable children- not necessarily just children who qualify for FSM.

“It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools…. is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility.” (Source – DfE website)

The funding is therefore given to schools to spend as they think best, although there is a requirement to publish online how this money is spent.

The Pupil Premium funding has allowed us to continue and extend what we already do – to monitor children’s progress and to give additional support when required. Children are certainly not singled out or stigmatised for getting some extra attention and we would never label a child in front of other children for receiving free school meals or being in care.

This funding will focus on the provision and implementation of individual and small group support in reading, writing and maths and the extension of first hand experiences in order to support, enhance and develop learning across the curriculum.