I actually had to do a presentation on pupil premium.
Those that qualify for free school meals get pupil premium paid to the school. Schools have a duty to report on where they spend it but essentially,
It provides additional funding from the Government to publicly funded schools in England to raise the achievement levels of disadvantaged children. It is mainly provided to close the gap between those eligible for pupil premium and their peers.
Basically generally as a rule those who receive FSM are academically way behind their peers. (sweeping statement but based in some fact)
To highlight the gap, here are the national statistics I used
54% of non-FSM children achieve 5 A*-C grades a GCSE incl maths & English
only 27% on FSM achieve the same. 27%!
For 2016/17 funding the school gets for each child on FSM
Children in nursery £302.10
Children in reception up to year 6 are allocated £1,320
Children in year 7 up to year 11 are allocated £935
However a higher rate of £1,900 is awarded to
looked after children and previously looked after (now adopted)
In my own child's primary school this additional funding of over £100k was spent on some things that benefit all the children such asa speech therapist, all children who needed it had access. It is also spent on staff to manage behaviour to allow children to stay in the classroom, music lessons, school trips, equipment for the school etc.
I think a cooking class every week is a lovely thing. At the primary I volunteer in we probably only do one cooking thing for the whole year which takes place over a 3 week period with the planning out what they are making etc.