To feel offended by this email from the school?

[PupilpremiumWTF]

I think I'll just post the email without any elaboration for now, and see what people think, this is copied and pasted directly, with identifying info changed:

Dear Mrs X,

It’s great to be able to invite you to a special evening for parents of our Pupil Premium students in Years 7, 8 and 9 on Thursday 20th November 2025.

We’ll be starting with a light buffet tea from 5:00 pm, giving you the chance to chat informally with staff and other parents before the evenings presentations begin.

At 5:30 pm, I’ll give a short overview of how we use Pupil Premium funding here at school to support students’ learning and wellbeing, and to help every child make the best possible progress.

From 6.00 pm to 7:00 pm, we will to be joined by Elevate Education, who will deliver a practical, engaging seminar designed to help parents support learning at home.

Topics covered will include:

- Time Management – helping your child to plan effectively and avoid last-minute stress.

• - Study Support – understanding what effective study looks like and how to make it stick.
• - Motivation – discovering what really drives student motivation and how to nurture it.
• - Parent E-book Access – every parent attending will receive a free e-book full of strategies and guidance.

This is a brilliant opportunity to pick up some useful ideas and find out more about how we’re supporting your child’s progress in school.

I really hope you’ll be able to join us for what promises to be an enjoyable and informative evening.

Please let us know if you can attend by completing the form on EduLink.

Kind regards,

Mr Y
Senior Assistant Headteacher

Then target the kids who are not doing as well as their peers, regardless of socioeconomic group. Why leave the middle class and rich parents out of learning something so precious and valuable that everyone would be so grateful to receive?

That's what upset me so much at the time! She did offer it to some other parents too, I think, but mainly because I was a first-time parent who was new to the school. She had a certain number of parents she was supposed to 'recruit' for the parenting class so I guess there is a similar dynamic in play here with the OP where the school gets funding for running these seminars for 'pupil premium' parents and they want to make sure there's good attendance.

This is presumably being funded by the Pupil Premium funding the school will get from the government. So it HAS to be spent on the children receiving Pupil Premium.

It feels like the school is stuck between a rock and a hard place here.

I get why they didn't come too. The unsolicited advice and opinions from parents who have no idea what they are dealing with, usually in the form of framed questions at question time.

Why not just politely feedback to the school that you don’t appreciate being singled out and that it might actively put off some families that do need the help.

I think you should still go to the meeting and engage with the information and engage with the school in general otherwise you are kind of proving their point.

Parent engagement with their child’s education is one of the biggest factors in their future success.

On the other hand, if you are in the armed forces and are just irritated that someone has mistaken you for being poor then UABU.

Because it’s pupil premium funded and it’s an initiative for PP kids.

Because middle class and rich parents can afford tutoring or other extra support.

It feels like the school is stuck between a rock and a hard place here.

They're not though - they've wedged themselves in there by their own decisions. Yes, they have to spend the money on PP pupils but they certainly don't have to spend the PP money on this. They can spend it on any number of other things, as long as it benefits PP pupils directly.

The first bit I can understand - and informative about how the money is spent, the second bit is misguided.

And not always for the same reasons. A foster parent may be interested in because they are looking after a high school child for the first time and would appreciate some tips. Sounds like PP is a broadbase so why would you judge or feel judged. If you don't need it don't go.

Pupil premium funding is applied to all children who are eligible. Schools have to show the impact on all PP children, including those doing well academically and those coming from caring families. It can’t just be targeted towards those who struggle educationally or come from dysfunctional families.

The report they include on their website can’t say we didn’t spend any money on William and Tabitha as they are doing well and their mummy and daddy read to them every night but we have spent it on James and Lily as their parents are illiterate and down the pub every night.

You are reading some meaning that just isn't there, and then getting offended by it.

At my work women are offered extra resources as it's a male dominated field, but that doesn't mean they think women are worse at their jobs.

It's the same with lots of things in life. You've been offered something you don't need, so say no thanks and move on.

Probably illegal. It's money given to an organization for a targeted group.

Id feel like those free school meals kids in the 70s who had to go to the front of the line. No one likes being singled out and feeling patronised with extra help.

YANBU

These statistics are from the EEF:

In 2023-24, only 25.8% of disadvantaged pupils achieved a grade 5 (‘strong pass’) or above in both GCSE English and maths, compared with 53.1% of their non-disadvantaged peers pp

In 2022-23, disadvantaged pupils made an average “Progress 8” score of –0.57, whereas non-disadvantaged pupils averaged +0.16.

I was a PP kid and my parents were nothing but supportive - plenty of PP parents are- but the gap is there- and widening - good on the school for trying to do something about it.

As an education researcher, this thread is very frustrating. Clear devide between those who understand statistics and those who don't.

To make it very simple:

1, X group performs "on average" worse than Y group on a certain metric

2, goverment/school want to reduce the gap between X and Y group in performance to create a more fair society.

3, goverment/school implement specific policies and help to try and improve X group. Those are not offered to Y group.

Why are they not offered to Y group?

Because,
A, it would increase the funding requirements, of which there isn't much..
B, if both groups recieve the same help, the gap in performance won't close (hence the equity based solution)

Also no, it doesn't mean that everyone in X group needs the help, but on average the research shows that the group contains more people that do need the help than Y group.

---

None of this means it is a good event, but the intent of targeting a group that "on average" needs help, is absolutely fine.

To not see that is to have a misunderstanding of the statistics, or an insecurity that is causing you to put emotion over logic.

Well that’s an easy one. Lots of parents of PP kids will need this extra help. So if you don’t, don’t go to the meeting, simple.

What an odd thing to be offended about. Statistics show that children in receipt of the PP often have lower attainment due to whatever disadvantage qualifies them for the PP; it's just addressing this fact.

If this doesn't apply you then don't go; as the famous Mumsnet quote goes, "it's an invitation not a summons"

PP children under-achieve consistently as a group. The school is trying to kick off the relationship with their PP parents, get to know them, make the school team approachable, and make it clear there is help available for those who need it.

Parenting a teen, and the transition to secondary school is not easy, and they are offering tips and tricks to make it smoother. The school is trying to do the best for your child. Why would that offend you?

If you are too proud to accept help, just don't go.

^^This really spells it out.

I was a school governor for 5+ years and the discrepancies were really sobering.

Also, if you are a capable and involved parent you probably have no idea how much some other parents struggle with the basics. More often than not, these parents would fall within the Pupil Premium group.

Some of it is generational or a simple lack of awareness. Sometimes a lack of interest in education. So many reasons why some parents within this group would benefit from extra support.

Not every Pupil Premium family needs the extra support. Many are extremely capable, engaged, and switched on. We were a Pupil Premium family and even worse, my DC had SEN - the horror!

This may have felt a bit clumsy from the school but there’s no easy way to directly target efforts on those that are more likely to need the help. And that IS the Pupil Premium group, like it or not.

OP, it feels as if you’re sensitive about being a Pupil Premium family and think that somehow means you are viewed as a less capable parent. That’s really not the case. But statistically many children within this cohort don’t perform as well and do need extra support. Their families do require extra help to understand how to properly support their child. No one thinks that every Pupil Premium family needs extra help.

You really don’t need to be offended by this. If it’s not helpful or appropriate for you, then you can simply let it go over your head.

On a separate but related note, in our area, if your child is suspected of being autistic or of having ADHD, every parent has to go on a multi-week parenting training course first. Everyone. I think it was 8 or 10 weeks long (can’t remember now). Only once you “prove” your parenting skills by attending the course and showing how you are implementing good parenting can you get referred for assessment by paediatrics. Many of us were already excellent parents and our child’s difficulties were totally unrelated to poor parenting. But in some cases it was pertinent. It would have been easy to feel offended - because it was annoying having to jump through hoops - but you could see how it was needed by some.

Maybe try and remove your family from the equation and view it objectively. No one is judging you or your child. But there will others in the same group who would a) benefit from some free food and b) could really do with the extra support.

I read this 5 times to try and work out what offended you. All kids need this stuff - but the government pays schools extra funding to provide more support to kids on pupil premium - your kids should be getting special treatment or your school is not doing their job. If your school took the money they get extra for pupil premium kids and ran whole school workshops with the money - that’s what should give people the rage.

My friend is a single mum ,her DC is entitled to free school lunches on pp
She's never accepted it though,says she's perfectly capable of feeding her own DC ..she would never accept help with uniform either ,she's a proud woman .
I expect she wouldn't go to this meeting either .
Just because something is free ,like free school meals , doesn't mean you have to accept it .
I'm sure op is perfectly justified in not going to the meeting,(sounds patronising) or accepting the free food and uniform

I can completely understand why you’re a bit offended by this - I would be too - and I think that the school would have done better to do the two things separately.

But, the reality of pupil premium is that a large proportion of children on it are growing up in households with a total income of less than £7400 per year.

The underlying reasons for poverty are many and complex but they are also often generational. And for some families, the reasons that they aren’t managing to earn more than that £7400 figure are also reasons why they find supporting their child’s education more difficult - trauma, disability, addiction, learning challenges, Sen needs, lack of education etc etc.

It is often these underlying reasons which fuel the attainment difference between children receiving pupil premium and those who don’t.

There’s no mention of Burberry or sofas in the front garden, I feel like you’re getting yourself worked up and offended by things that actually haven’t been said.

Yes, it could be worded better, I agree, but this reaction seems a bit…much.

I would be grateful for all the additional help and support my child was being offered, whether it’s needed or not.

If this seminar, which is rightly intended for the parents of children who are statistically likely to do less well, was open to all, most of the places would be taken by the parents of children who need it least. Privilege is very good at accumulating privilege.

It's not just those who are FSM, it's also children who have had a parent in the military or those who are post adoption