Pupil premium plus and how it is spent

[AngelsWithSilverWings]

Just wondered what you would think if your child's school spent some of the PPP funds on a 5 day school holiday sports activity camp.

Would you think this is an appropriate use of the PPP for an adopted child?

My DD 6 has been offered this and it is costing the school £60.

My feeling is that we like to do stuff together as a family during the school holidays and I don't think that sending DD off on her own between 9 and 3 for a whole week of the holidays would be beneficial to her at all.

The school did ask me in April if I had any preference as to how this money could benefit my daughter and so I asked for some help and support with her numeracy. They laughed and said that they were thinking more along the lines of drama lessons!

Should I speak to the school or am I just being an ungrateful moaner?

My DS's school offered one day at one of these camps earlier this year but he didn't want to go as he was the only child from his school who would be there and he didn't want to go on his own.

I think it proves they don't understand the needs of adopted children. I can almost guarantee they are sending Pupil Premium children (who are or have been from a low income family) on this for their enrichment and have lumped in the PPP children through laziness. You are not being ungrateful or fussy. Have a chat with SLT or Senco about the needs of your child as opposed to the needs of Pupil Premium children.

Definitely go and talk to the SENCO, maybe with a few more ideas up your sleeve.
Schools do not totally understand about adopted children's needs, but as they all differ, we need to educate them about our own children.

Although, post adoption support also don't totally understand, we were offered very similar to you from PAS last year for dd3, it was not at all the support we required so I kindly turned them down, we have had no other support offered and I have given up with them.

Thank you for the replies. It's so hard to know what to say to the school.

On the one hand it won't hurt her to take advantage of this freebie ( she is a very emotionally secure little girl - unlike my son who absolutely could not go on the sort of activity) but on the other hand I feel I should ,as an adoptive parent, try to educate the school is what is right for adopted children.

I really do feel that they just don't have a clue. The school has the lowest number of children with PP in the whole borough. It's a very affluent area and I just don't think they know how how to spend the money for the benefit of the children( for my child or the few who are on free school meals)

I'm getting quite fed up with this school. As far as I can tell they have done absolutely nothing with the money this academic year.

I've asked them time and time again if they can let her join the school choir . It would cost them nothing and would benefit her enormously but because her name wasn't pulled out of the hat she won't get another chance until she starts in the juniors ( and only then if she can actually sing as they select the choir on ability there)

My DS's school have bought in a counselling service for him ( after a lot of persuasion on my part) but apart from that I'm completely in the dark as to what they are doing with the money.

Sorry I realise I'm just ranting now.

Experienced the same dd did not want too do school trip as had other commitments school only presumed incorrect it was because of a financial situation , are still waiting too here from them. ds school are financing a school trip and a IT Tablet and app's., is in SEN school, another child is in mainstream, have done the same except school trip but have done more with IT teaching aids, in Math's and English which will help at home too, child also has special needs. So we are experiencing that these 3 schools have a different approach too all 3 children's needs., but we have had too request discussions and meeting with all 3. Again having too follow up with the 1st school but do not hold out regards any conclusion

I think you need to say again to your school what you think would benefit your DD.

For DD1, y10, I asked for, and got, some extra support in a subject she would like to do at A levels but was having trouble mastering question answering technique.

For DD2, y4, I am about to ask for either some ELSA support, and/or some more focussed / 1-1 help with spelling and writing. Not quite decided yet.

There is no point either school financially subsidising trips / camps for my DDs. We can pay for them ourselves. What we can't do it provide additional support/expertise during school hours.

Will await New school come September may be because only introduced this April school are new too it. School residential trip for DS is tuition braced so will be very beneficial too him is not a whole class trip but is individual geared too his interest and special needs. But expensive.

"They laughed and said that they were thinking more along the lines of drama lessons!"

This shows that they don' understand not only the needs of adopted children, but also the purpose or the function of the Pupil Premium Plus.

I would challenge the school about this, reminding them that the PPP is to be used to raise the educational attainment of LAC and post LAC. Ask them how they expect the trip to do this, and how they are going to measure its impact on your DD's attainment.

Then refer to the Sutton Trust/EEF toolkit for evidence-based evaluations of interventions.

1:1 tuition has been shown to have a significant effect on educational attainment, and this need not be provided directly by the school- many schools commission tuition from reputable agencies, which happens at home.

It's worth reminding them that they will need to demonstrate to Ofsted how they have used the money, and how it has increased the individual child's attainment.

Angelswithsilverwings, personally, I agree with you. I would probably not want my child away from me in the holidays for extra school time. But if I really felt it was beneficial for them and they wanted to do it then I might well agree, so I think you need to decide on the merits of the trip for your child not necessarily for any adopted child (which I am sure you will do, of course).

I would definitely request the choir and I might request singing lessons for dd in your shoes because if it is by audition then this would give her a better chance when the choir next auditions - and there may be a church or community choir she could join (if you feel it is appropriate).

I don't know about the ins and outs of what the money is meant to be spent on but I feel personally that anything that builds confidence in kids could be said to improve their chances in education!

I'll give you a personal example from my family which may ring bells with other parents. My dd got her report this week and it said she did not seem to understand the Bible stories very well in RE lessons. As Christians who go regularly to church, I was surprised. When we looked through dd's report together with DD and DH, DD said she did understand the stories but felt 'shy' to put her hand up and answer for fear of getting the answer wrong! She even reminded me that at church she often knew the story from just the theme (which I did not always!). So for my dd (who is not adopted) confidence is quite important. My dd has dyslexia (I understand a lot of adopted children may/could/might have learning difficulties like dyslexia. So personally speaking I think confidence for all kids (adopted or otherwise) is quite key! I wonder if this was anything to do with the school's reason for thinking of drama classes (??). (I hear drama might build confidence in some kids - actually almost anything can - Taekwan-do, etc etc).

I would certainly push for maths if that is what you think would help but I would also consult your dd a bit as I can see this could be an empowering exercise for any child.

My ds is adopted and may start school this academic year coming so we will have to face this type of question, so thank you for your post as it has already got me thinking what would help him!

AngelsWithSilverWings is there such a thing as a PEP meeting with the school? Personal education plan?

If you put 'pep meeting with school for pupil premium' into Google you may get some guidance for your area. I just did it and got about 6 different county council plans. The one for your area would be the best of course but you could get ideas from any.

This one www.northamptonshire.gov.uk/en/councilservices/children/virtual-school/pages/pupil-premium.aspx says "How will the money be spent?

The DFE has directed that 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 within their responsibility.

Monitoring of how our looked after children benefit from this funding will be through the Personal Education Plan (PEP) meetings."

But I am genuinely not sure if that statement is in relation to children who are still in the looked after system and I would really hope that parents would be consulted as they also know their children's needs, and may well have a much better idea than schools do!

This site www.hawkswoodgroup.org.uk/page/?title=Pupil+Premium&pid=77 also added this info...

"
Criteria for use

3.1 The Pupil Premium Plus will be used to improve outcomes for children in the following areas:

Academic achievement and progress
Wider achievement e.g. in an area in which the child is gifted and talented
Attendance
Inclusion (by reducing internal and external exclusion)
Transition (e.g. between key stages or between schools)
Mental health (overcoming the effects of attachment and developmental trauma) where this affects learning"

That last one could cover almost anything, which is good.

If you want to educate the school about adopted children in general I think this is very noble and could be useful for them. I think you also need to educate them about your dd and it sounds like your very emotionally secure little girl may be different from a number of adopted children. I really hope my ds will get there but it is early days for us!

If the school think drama lessons and you think maths I would ask them why they think drama, I might be tempted to go for everything that seems useful but in stages, maybe maths one year and something different another etc. They may have some thoughts or ideas or know something your dd has expressed in school.

Good luck, you are most definitely a moaner, you are wise and want to make wise choices for your kids.

Bloomin heck, sorry angel, best go to bed! I meant ...

Good luck, you are most definitely NOT a moaner...

Wow - thank you! A lot of really useful stuff in these posts. I will sit down later with my DH and get things straight in my head before I make an appointment to see the head teacher.

Italian you are right about the confidence and the drama classes. My daughter's speech was a little delayed and In reception year she was petrified of speaking in front of people.She wouldn't speak up in class and school plays were absolute hell. She would be so distressed that once she had to be taken to the nurses room to calm down.

Another mum recommended a speech and drama class and although I was sceptical I gave it a go. It has transformed my daughter. She is amazing everyone now. She still lacks confidence in speaking up in class ( a fear of getting the answer wrong - particularly in numeracy sessions) but I know that as she matures this will get better.

The slight problem is that the school are constantly going on about her amazing transformation and I'm sure will be claiming all the credit for it to prove that what they are doing with her in school is all fine and dandy!

Thank you all again - this has been really really helpful

Goodness me Italian I just noticed that your posts were made at 2am! I do hope you got some sleep after all that night time googling. You may be in need of this morning.

Yes, I am juts off to make a cuppa. Actually I had already been asleep on the sofa! I woke up and could not get back to sleep. This often happens. I am very tired after dinner but awake at 2.00 am.

Might be OK as long as the school does not take all the credit! The lion's share must go to dd and the family!

Well a nice little update this morning.

The deputy head was on morning gate duty so I asked if we could have a chat.

She was horrified that we had been sent this offer as she said that the school must spend the money directly on enhancing the child's academic experience.

She apologised and said that whoever was organising the holiday club for children with PP had clearly mistakenly included DD in the mail out. She told me that, as she understands it , PP plus must not be spent on holiday clubs which are only offered to provide additional support to low income families.

She had said that we will have a meeting at the start of the new term so that she can tell me what additional support she has arranged. She confirmed that it will be numeracy that will be targeted first and will possibly take the form of additional in class support in conjunction with outside assistance too.

She is obviously much better informed about the PP plus policies than she was the last time we discussed it.

So hopefully I'll be back with a further update next term with good news about how it's all going!

Thanks again for all of your replies . I wouldn't have had the confidence to speak to the deputy head about it if I hadn't read all of your posts just before dong the school run.

Fantastic news. I hope the senior leadership at my son's school has the same understanding when the time comes. Make sure you get a "shopping list" clear in your head before that meeting so that you can go with suggestions.

That's great news.
By the way, have the rules on PP plus changed since it was first introduced? Was wondering if my older two are now eligible for it. They were adopted before 2005.

Personal Education Plans are currently a requirement only for Looked After Children, and PEP meetings need to be held at least every six months.

Virtual Schools (who manage the allocation of the LAC PPP to schools) are working towards extending their remit to cover post LAC (those under residence orders, SGOs and adopted from care), so many authorities may choose to complete PEPs for them too. I expect PEPs to be statutory for post LAC soon.

I have to say, I take issue with the suggestion that the PPP should be used to improve inclusion, attendance and mental health issues as that website appears to, Italian. Systems should be in place for children to access these areas of support, and the PPP was never intended to 'plug the gaps' in those services- whilst there are certainly many creative ways in which to use the money to raise educational achievement, as pps point out, I would be very wary of letting schools and other service providers wriggle out of their responsibilities by using money earmarked for raising educational attainment to pay for the things they should be providing as standard.

PPP is currently only for those adopted under the Adoption act 2002 (so those adopted after 2005); however, with the recent change in admissions criteria to include those adopted from care prior to the act top priority, I would not be surprised if the PPP criteria follows suit.

Oh, and great news Angels- it sounds like the school do know what they're doing after all

Good news! Well done. Spur of the moment can be so right with the right teacher/head.

DD's school appear utterly clueless about the difference between PP and PPP. I've been told that the money isn't just for her , that the oversight from the LA is for "closing the gap" and the HT looked utterly blank at the mention if a virtual HT.

Where do I start? There doesn't seem to be a definitive guide anywhere about how the money should be spent and accounted for?

The school actually has a lot of experience with LAC because there's a refuge nearby, but I suspect because that creates a transient population they've never really had to worry about showing sustained improvement in attainment