To be offended by the insinuations nursery were making.

[OliviaJ]

Basically my ds age 4 attends a nursery attached to a school although come September he'll e starting reception at a completely different school. Yesterday my ds's one to one practically throws a form in my hand telling me i must fill it in and return it ASAP. I asked her what it was regarding (didn't have the chance to look as ds was throwing a huge tantrum) and she said oh it's just to do with some funding the school can claim for some children.

So I get home and have a look at it and it's regarding this supsedly new early years premium that the government are allowing schools to claim. It asked for the usual, ie name address, but then went on to ask for mine and dh's national insurance number and then if our income was below £16000 and if so, did we claim JSA/IS/ESA etc etc.

Well to be fair I was a bit taken a back as to how intrusive it was and why Infact school wanted to kneel this information especially since in a few short weeks my ds will no longer be there. The form then goes on to mention that it is a proven that chidlren who are eligible for free school meals tend to be significantly behind educationally and my claiming this finding the school intends to close the gap between more affluent children.

Well for starters my children do not get free school meals, not have they ever done and me and dh do not get those types of benefits. I mean we get CB and CTC of £107 per month but that's about it. At first I was fuming actually that nursey dared to assume that we were firstly eligible for these benefits when they know us as a family (eldest two chidlren attended the school previously) and they know that dh works and secondly I'm annoyed at the insinuation that even if we did lain these benefits that my son would automatically be behind academically when in our family at least that would not happen as me and dh are very hands on with all of our children's educations. So today I asked the TA why she had given me this form when me and my dh don't claim benefits and our kfks are my on FSM and she became all awkward and just kind of shrugged it off! So AIBU to be a bit annoyed?

[ShadowFire]

Can't remember the exact wording now, but the Letter we got with this form listed the eligibility criteria.

So we could see that we didn't qualify from the covering letter we got with the form, and therefore didn't fill it in.

[Marynary]

Pipbin- Isn't the whole point of this forum to debate? Nobody is forcing you to post.

[Pipbin]

So Mary, how does your garden grown?
Are you being contrary just because you can?
Even the OP can't be bothered to argue this anymore.

[Marynary]

Then what are you saying? As it seems like you are. The wording offends, asking all parents to fill it out is patronising, the way it was handed out was offensive etc etc.

I am saying that if the letter offends those who may be eligible it is counterproductive as it will make people feel less inclined to fill in the form.
It is also patronising to suggest that people can't work out for themselves whether there is a chance they might be eligible so everyone needs to fill it in.


There will be many similar bits of paperwork during the whole school career of a child. It really isn't meant to upset or offend, nurseries/schools aren't perfect and don't get it right all the time. I'm sure most good settings will appreciate constructive feedback. Getting so wound up about something minor is really not worth it.

What makes you think I am wound up? My children are at secondary school so I don't need a lesson on what will happen during their school career. By the way, the schools my children go to (and probably all other schools) don't ask people to fill in the pupil premium forms regardless of income.

[CultureSucksDownWords]

Then what are you saying? As it seems like you are. The wording offends, asking all parents to fill it out is patronising, the way it was handed out was offensive etc etc.

There will be many similar bits of paperwork during the whole school career of a child. It really isn't meant to upset or offend, nurseries/schools aren't perfect and don't get it right all the time. I'm sure most good settings will appreciate constructive feedback. Getting so wound up about something minor is really not worth it.

[Marynary]

Perhaps you're right Marynary, and the nursery school is maliciously or idiotically trying to offend parents and waste their time.

I didn't suggest that the nurseries are intentionally or malicously doing anything.

[CultureSucksDownWords]

Perhaps you're right Marynary, and the nursery school is maliciously or idiotically trying to offend parents and waste their time.

(Or, they are hoping to claim money that they can use to benefit the children that may need it the most? Which of these options is more likely?!)

[Marynary]

insancerre OP was given the wrong information then wasn't she?

[Marynary]

Oh well, then you don't have to fill the form in. Just tell the nursery that you don't qualify and leave it at that. It's not a huge ask, is it?

The letter states "we ask that ALL PARENTS/GUARDIANS fill in the attached form. This will allow us to claim the additional Early Years Pupil Premium."

i.e. parents are too stupid to work out for themselves whether the form is worth filling in and must fill it in anyway.

[insancerre]

Sorry Mary but it is not for school
It is early years pupil premium and it is for this term
Not next term and is is not the pupil premium that schools claim
It is worth 57 p per hour for eaxh eligible child
The child needs to be already claiming the 15 hours education grant to be able to attract this extra money

[Marynary]

Whether it is on the form or the letter accompanying the form is irrelevant.

I presume that this is the letter

www.gov.uk/government/publications/early-years-pupil-premium-model-document-and-letter-for-parents


It states that "National data and research tells that children eligible for free school meals tend to do less well" This does imply that those eligible for FSM are probably behind educationally. What on earth is the point of making this statement? Totally counterproductive.

[CultureSucksDownWords]

Oh well, then you don't have to fill the form in. Just tell the nursery that you don't qualify and leave it at that. It's not a huge ask, is it?

[Marynary]

I would also be irritated at being expected to fill in the form regardless of income as if people haven't got anything better to do than waste time filling in forms.

[Pipbin]

Mary Mary
It is a new thing
It is the early years pupil premium
Not the pupil premium
It has only just been introduced for this term's funding

Exactly this.
Also, the form doesn't say that children who are on FSM tend to be behind educational, the letter that goes with it may do.
I had a look at the letter and form that my school sent out and there was no mention of FSM children being behind. The letters were county issue so this may be the wording of the OPs county.

[CultureSucksDownWords]

As far as I understand it they were trying to get parents of children eligible to fill out the forms for the early years pp, before they move on to school. So the nursery will get the benefit of the money.

The form doesn't say that children eligible for FSM will be behind educationally. It says that they tend to be disadvantaged educationally. Which is true. It's a statistical correlation, not a fixed causal relationship.

[Marynary]

OP was also told that it was for funding for the school.

[Marynary]

I'm not confused. OP's child is about to leave nursery and start school so I was presuming the the school pupil premium would apply not the early years one.

Regardless they should use common sense and not hand out forms telling people that children eligible for free school meals will be behind educationally.

[insancerre]

Mary Mary
It is a new thing
It is the early years pupil premium
Not the pupil premium
It has only just been introduced for this term's funding
It seems people left are getting confused. It is nothing to do with school funding

[Alanna1]

It is SO hard for schools to do this and it makes a HUGE difference to how much money they get. How is the school to know who does and doesn't get benefits?? Maybe you havent claimed for your older children. Maybe you recently lost a job. Maybe they give the forms to everyone. Maybe they have assessed slightly and thought that perhaps you qualify. The point is they don't know and you are being VVV unreasonable to get into a huff with them!

[Marynary]

The form may well go in the welcome pack in future but as this is a new thing and the form has only just been produced that is't possible a this time.

It isn't a new thing at all. Schools have been able to claim extra funding for children who are eligible for free school meals for many years.

[OddBoots]

The form may well go in the welcome pack in future but as this is a new thing and the form has only just been produced that is't possible a this time.

[Muchimuchi]

In our school/nursery we handed these forms out to everyone, granted it ended up taking over a few days to grab everyone as we had to talk to parents about other issues too and when we give them to the children half the forms don't make it out the door, this may have looked like we were choosing certain families but we weren't, by the end of the week everyone had them.

I have also had these forms for my son and not been insulted by them, we don't receive any benefits at all not even CB so wouldn't be eligible for funding but how are they meant to know that, I didnt fill it in and just told them we don't receive those benefits, you sound like you've been very rude to the poor TA.

The OP's attitude is awful, We would never think of ourselves better than anyone else just because we happen to have more money in our family, you never know what may happen to make this change one day!

[TwllBach]

I work I a nursery, OP, and I think you are extremely lucky that your son has been given a one to one even though there is no funding for one. I think you should be grateful that your nursery has decided to allocate money to that. Many nurseries are not able to give the support many of their pupils desperately need. Get off your high horse and fill in the form. If I were you I'd be looking for ways to make other donations.

[Marynary]

I got given one of these forms from ds's private nursery this week. It didn't even occur to me to be offended

Perhaps that is because you didn't feel that you had been personally selected. OP did feel selected (for whatever reason) and others will feel that way too.

[Dansak]

I got given one of these forms from ds's private nursery this week. It didn't even occur to me to be offended .