What are DCs pupil premiums spent on?

[selly24]

As the title, am curious to know. Also have you had to investigate/ raise the issue to ensure it was being spent for the full benefit of your child(ren)?

Each school should have it in their website. For my DGS it has recently been used for extra-curricular activities once the teacher was told he is entitled to it

Sometimes it's used for a whole class thing - maybe a visitor or some kind of activity that benefits all the children but is actually aimed at one in particularly.

It varies a lot. One school I know, where there are very few PP children has meetings with the parents to discuss how it is to be spent. Ours, where we have around 40% qualify, it is used for more general things like sports coaches, arts or drama specialists or to cover the cost of trips.

Occasionally, when asked, we contribute to things like horse riding or outside swimming lessons.

At our school we're looking to buy some large play equipment for the playgrounds and invest in some visitors to come and see all the year groups in line with our topics. Every school is different and has different priorities, though - our Ofsted flagged up our outside areas and play times as the chink in our armour, so that's what we're focusing on.

phoenixrose, isn't that just spending the money on all the children, though? I'm sure PPP was supposed to be spent to optimise the learning for individual pupils, not spent for the benefit of the school as a whole?

At my school the adoptive parents meet regularly together and we have been quite assertive with the school that this money should not disappear into the general school budget. Many of the children get play therapy funded by PPP, others have extra-curricular activities or therapeutic support.

To clarify, I'm talking about PPP. I don't know about the rules for PP spending.

So should we be able to ask for a breakdown at the end of the year? There's no way DGS has seen all of his PP!

I wouldn't wait till the end of the year, TongueBiter - I proactively contacted the person with responsibility for these children (often the SENCO) at the beginning of the year and asked for an appointment so we could discuss how the money should be spent. I haven't kept track of it by the penny, but I know some parents who have.

I think many schools are not clear how PPP should be used, and many parents are not either. Parents need to read the guidance and be on top of it - because there's no guarantee the school will be.

I feel absolutely no guilt in insisting that this money is spent on my child and not absorbed into the general pot.

Thanks for that advice - it's all been a bit mishandled from the start - teacher unaware of Spec.Guardianship situation for quite a while; eventually offered free extra curricular activities and he goes to a TA in a group for 'socialising' once a week. She also tried to get me to sign him up for the school counselling which I think is funded by PP but when the first question on the form is "what are your concerns over your child's behaviour?" I chucked it in the bin.
SENCO is supposed to make sure he achieves x sub levels in a year but again I haven't had any communication with her.

Ooo I can feel an email coming on ...

Primary

• Generally the PPP money seems to be a bit lumped in with the PP money. It is spent on TA intervention for spelling, reading, & maths, and also ELSA provision. This is fine as DD needs this. Pupils on PP can also attend a drama after school activity for free to help with self confidence, and there have been other odds and ends like that too. We took up the priority place but paid anyway as we can.

Secondary

• The PP money I know goes generally on things like summer transition weeks going from y6 to y7, and for English and maths intervention in KS3. We asked for and got some additional English support for DD in y10 & y11 which was desperately needed. PP money can also be spent on providing free revision guides and stuff like that.

Generally I've found that if you don't ask, you don't get. With secondary certainly they almost didn't know what to spend it on until I gave them some 'suggestions'.

Just to add to what I was saying to phoenixrose (hopefully without it looking like I'm nagging at her, just because I think this is a really important point) it shouldn't be about the school's priorities - it is intended for the priorities of the individual children concerned.

Devora you are completely right. I hadn't looked into it much as our lo is only 1! However I was asked to be on a panel of adopters for our LA's ofsted inspection. The ofsted inspector asked and went on to tell us more about PPP. It absolutely should be individual and can get for anything that you feel will benefit your child, extra curricular activities, holiday clubs, school trips even iPads if that's what you feel your child needs (one adopter on the panel had this as her child had problems writing).

The BAAF website has some good resources too. I've emailed them for advice today.

Do report back Tongue - DS's this year has been spent of a course of CBT for him so very easy to identify how it benefits him personally, but I'll be talking to our SENCO about next year shortly.

The school can pool the generic Ever6 PP funding, but the PP for LAC and former LAC (until recently known as the Pupil Premium Plus) should be spent on things above and beyond the school's universal offer which will raise the academic attainment of that particular child.

Other children may benefit from the PP spend; for example, social skills groups or counselling services which the school buys in; but the PP that LAC and former LAC attract should not be used to fund interventions the school are already running, such as literacy withdrawal groups or SATs booster classes. The generic/Ever6 PP however, can be- and, as vulnerable children, LAC and former LAC should benefit from this too.

Ofsted (and for LAC, the Virtual Head) will want to see evidence of how the PP money for LAC and former LAC is being spent to raise the attainment of the child who attracts it, as Devora and Velvet say.

Broadly speaking, the PP for LAC and former LAC should not be used to plug any gaps in services; nor is it only used to help children who are academically behind. It should be used to help each child achieve their potential- whether this is through raising aspirations through extra university/museum visits, or tutoring at home, or technological equipment.

The EEF/Sutton Trust toolkit can be a good starting point for discussion with schools who are struggling to spend the money effectively.

That's really helplful. Many thanks, tethersend.

Goodness knows - I was gearing up to fight the battle of PP vs PPP and what was being dedicated to DD (because I don't think any was ) when we moved.

Fab resource Tethers, thank you!

I've found some more info off the back of that:

ten point plan

Ofsted

The reply from BAAF is as follows:

I think that in the first instance, you should approach the Head of Foundation Stage and ask for a meeting with the class teacher and SENCO. The school is given the Pupil premium money to meet the extra needs of children placed and they have ultimate responsibility to decide how it is best spent. This does mean that for example, if they decide to buy a laptop for a child with particular needs, it belongs to the school and not the child. I do not think therefore that they will be obliged to give you a breakdown of costs re the Pupil Premium, but they should be co-operating fully with you in exploring how to meet your grandson’s needs.

And another ...

<a class="break-all" href="http://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20141124154759/www.ofsted.gov.uk/resources/pupil-premium-analysis-and-challenge-tools-for-schools" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Analysis and Challenges

After a shaky start when the school just seemed to treat the money the same way they treat PP funds we have reached the point where the school know it has to be used specifically to meet my DCs individual needs.

So DS's has been spent on counselling, play therapy and a lunchtime "self esteem through drama" course and DDs has been spent on the one to one academic support she needs.