Would pupil premium cover this?

[Snaarff]

I am on sickness benefire ESA. DD receives free school meals and therefore the school gets pupil premium for her.

In her first term they were offered drum lessons with a teacher at £56 per half term. She really wanted to try it but she's never really stuck to anything before so I assumed it would be a one time thing. But she loves it. And I'm really struggling to get the 56 quid each half term.

Would this be something her pupil premium could be used towards?

You would need to talk to the school and explain your struggling to pay and see if they can help.

Yes it can be used for that.

The school may disagree as they may have budgeted it for a TA but that may not be supporting your daughter.

It can be used for that but it's at the discretion of the school and it may have already been allocated to other support that they feel she needs. Talk to the school.

Yes it could-each child should be considered as an individual. Pupil premium funding isn’t just about closing gaps, it is also about enriching the lives of disadvantaged children and allowing them to experience things they wouldn’t be able to normally. Ask to speak to the member of staff in charge of PP; there will be a nominated governor as well.

And it can’t just be used for a TA as spend has to be targeted and have measurable impact

My experience of PP is that schools use it to fund things like TAs as @MyOtherProfile says. Immensely frustrating.

School’s pupil premium report (should be on school website) might include section where they want to encourage PP pupils to attend extra curricular clubs. They may have set aside some funding for this

It should be but my DC pupil premium was used to employ a support worker for 2 other families!
The HT was very open about this and complained about losing staff member when I started the process to move DC
It depends on the school

Some heads might agree-ring yours and ask.

@MrsElijahMikaelson1

And it can’t just be used for a TA as spend has to be targeted and have measurable impact

Of course it can. The gov website says it can be used to provide small group tuition. Lots of schools use their PP money to fund a TA to do interventions.

@MrsElijahMikaelson1

And it can’t just be used for a TA as spend has to be targeted and have measurable impact

Of course it can. The TA can run interventions which are targeted and the impact measurable.

Your school should have a PP strategy on its website so you can see what they spend it on.
Lots of schools support a club for a child on PP so it can be used this way so I would ask. Music is really good at supporting literacy, maths and motor skills so it shoukd be easy to show the benefit

@MyOtherProfile and @Howshouldibehave that’s exactly what I said in my first post! The PP strategy document should be on the school website. Yes it can be used to fund a TA for interventions-but PP children have to be prioritised within those groups. What I said is that they can’t just employ a general TA with that money without assessing each child and their needs and not every PP child needs-that TA will need to have the amount of time that PP funding is used for spent doing something with PP children; obviously other children requiring interventions can be part of the group but PP children should be prioritised and if they are not then that is another discussion altogether. My school funds a whole heap of music lessons and instrument hire to enrich childrens lives.

Also some external clubs will work with the school and offer a subsidised or a free PP place as part of their letting agreeement or their opportunity to get business so you could ask the school if the drum teacher has an arrangement like that. (Its less likely if its just an individual making a living but the bigger franchises sometimes do)

@MrsElijahMikaelson1

And it can’t just be used for a TA as spend has to be targeted and have measurable impact

When I was a primary governor it absolutely coud be used for this and was. The school kept ecords of the progress of the pupils involved to show its effectiveness

If that's been stopped I think that's a backward step

For the OP, just ask them, that's the only way to know

Pupil premium could potentially be used for that BUT regular pupil premium is usually budgeted to provide interventions, TAs in classrooms, learning support clubs etc and so they may have already accounted for it as they do receive PP in a lump sum for all of their children and it is up to schools how best to use that pool of money.

Pupil Premium Plus is for children in care/aka CLA and that would be used for things like extra tuition, extra or wider learning like musical lessons or clubs to enhance their learning and provide richer experiences due to early trauma/lack of experiences.(just in case that applies here but from your OP not sure it does)

@AllThatFancyPaintsAsFair that’s exactly what I posted 🤦‍♀️