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

You're offended at being offered help? Just don't go.

Our school - like all schools - gets funding for services kids and they get special days out. No one is offended by this. They also have a special session for young carers, with biscuits, again no offence taken.

The entry level in the exam for PP kids is lower at our school. Why would they do this if they didn't think they needed extra help? They don't seem offended.

You seem to have a chip on your shoulder about being PP. You are happy I'm guessing for the school to take the extra PP money but not to be patronised. Why do you think PP kids need extra money?

You're saying you are low income but not a rubbish parent. I get that. There are lots of rubbish parents around and certainly not all are PP. But I'm guessing there are PP parents who for whatever reason do need help and are struggling. Education is meant to be the gateway to a better life for all kids.

Don't go and write to the school saying you think this is patronising if you do think so.

I see both sides. I would feel sad that my life was such that I was in the low income group perceived as needing help and many in that group would need help.

Budgets are tight and more efficient for school to target those that statistically are more likely to struggle. Which is going to be those that can’t support themselves financially. Obviously not you but you are in that cohort. I would be gutted too. Don’t think school are in the wrong though.

Many parents could use a search engine then.

It won’t be an assumption OP, it will be a clear statistical reality that a significantly higher proportion of children on Pupil Premium are disadvantaged due to home environment and lack of parental engagement. So the school is trying to do its best to help. A whole school approach wouldn’t be more likely to benefit these children.

If you chose to turn up that's your choice - the school aren't telling you who is on PP, their parents are voluntarily attending. I can't see how GDPR comes into it. If you don't want to disclose your status you don't attend.

Bloody hell, this post shows why this country is doing so badly.

OP, this is exactly the kind of evening - with exactly the kind of topics - that my DD's excellent private school offers parents about once a year. Even down to the light refreshments as a way to encourage you to stay and talk.

And all the parents go - because we're invested in our kids, and we know that we'll benefit from guidance from the educational experts on how best to help our kids. I see it as a big value-add of private school that they give us this kind of wider help.

What I take offence at is that your school are withholding it from the parents of non pp kids. All the parents would benefit from it. All the kids would get better long-term attainment, be more productive, give the country a better future. And whilst I know that the cost of the refreshments would go up slightly, that's a fraction of what goes into organising an evening like this. It would take so little extra to make it available to all.

It's typical leftie idiocy ideology to try to reduce inequality by deliberately depriving all the other kids, in order to promote one little group over and over again. So much money and effort poured into the same kids and families, whilst all the rest are deliberately held back.

Go to the talk. Help your kid as much as you can. And appreciate what you're being offered.

Are you upset that they’re offering a parenting course? I used to work at a private school where they offered a parenting course and it was really well received. Just take it or leave it.

It's because legally they can't offer it to other students. The money can only be used for an assigned group.

They are working on statistical data that shows PP children do not achieve high GCSEs. There is a big drive for disadvantaged children atm in school and unfortunately if you are PP you fall into this category.

However within this category that is a large spectrum of people/families. I fall into this and so does my son. He doesnt struggle academically so I wouldn't attend these things. I struggle with finances due to being a single parent. So I would reach out for help with trips or uniform.

I wouldn't take offence. They just want to help and support and you can pick and choose what you feel is appropriate.

They're not "perceived" as needing help, they actually need help. All the evidence supports this, as posters have said. PP students are far less likely to engage and to have parental involvement and support. Their outcomes are worse. That's not necessarily the fault of the parents, they often need to be helped as well.
This was a perfectly pleasant and polite email, which many parents would value.
The OP won't go, that's her choice, but some parents will, and their children will benefit.

OP, I totally see your POV and I think I would feel the same. However, I have been teaching for a really long time and, really often, it's students in receipt of the PP that serially fail to complete homework and have really poor attendance. These two things combine to impact their performance massively. Obviously I also have many non-PP students who do this and hardworking PP students with amazing attendance.

There is a huge attainment gap between PP students and non-PP students. The school is simply trying to close that gap. If you know it's not for you, don't go. I was invited to several SEND evenings like this when my son was at secondary - about study support and how to manage homework and ensure students were using their time effectively at home . I didn't go because my son, who was ASD, got all 7s, 8s and 9s at GCSE and four A-Levels. He's now studying at Imperial College. Is that true for all of our SEND students? No. Data-wise, there is a huge attainment gap between students with SEND and those without.

I do understand but I genuinely think the school are trying to help a cohort of students who are struggling country-wide and not making assumptions based on nothing.

It's not the school, govt love their data and go oh let's have a programme that raises achievement in certain groups that we've identified and schools have to show how they spend their money etc. It's not a personal thing but can feel like it.

I wouldn't even say it's ideological, it's more data driven than anything!

Im sorry but its not leftie ideology. You can afford private education so clearly live in a bubble. Studies show disadvantaged children such as PP children perform worse than those in a home with money and stability. Therefore helping this group helps to put them on a more equal playing field.
They are not splitting people they are trying to even it out. What I take offence to is people like you thinking everything is yours, when you can comfortably pay for things and give your children opportunities. Some of us cant and need extra support.

The government gives specific funding for PP children and it has to be used on them. That's the rules unfortunately!

This ⬆️.
It's very clearly not driven by ideology, unless the ideology is to support learning, engagement and progression.

Is there physical space to give this talk to all parents?

Would pp families be ok with the pp money going towards a talk that non-pp families could also attend? I bet some of the latter would happily go along.

We have an adopted child in our wider family, and know several families with adopted DC who have, of course, been through the care system. These are families who have good incomes, but their DC attract Pupil Premium Plus. The schools actually get more per head for these children than they do for those on free school meals. Knowing those parents, they are keen to get involved in anything that can improve the chances of their DC.

There is plenty of evidence that these children have far lower rates of attainment than children who have never been in care, for all sorts of reasons.

Wtf? Is this for real?!!!!!!'

Schools have to show how PP money is used. Extensive research has shown that the areas mentioned in the invite are where many pp families need support. If I was at school now I’d be a pp student but like you, my parents wouldn’t have needed that extra help so would simply have declined the invitation.
Schools absolutely can’t win. Try and offer support and people get offended. Don’t do anything and people will be annoyed.

I'm a teacher in Scotland and I am assuming that this is the same as our PEF (pupil equity fund). I can see both sides of this.

We put a lot of focus on SIMD (Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation) which allocates postcodes a number based on likely deprivation. The children from those postcodes are tracked more carefully and given extra support, if required.

On one hand, like you, I think it's really patronising to assume that the parents of these children are less able to parent. There are many who are excellent parents. And on the other side, it's often the affluent parents who claim to be so busy with work they can't do their kids homework with them etc.

However, statistically studies have shown pupils from more deprived areas do need more support at school to close the gap, both in terms of academics and life experiences/skills.

I understand why you find it offensive but try and look at the bigger picture and think about the children this will benefit and take it with a pinch of salt.

Oh and also, food does help to reel people in!

But that's sort of the point. They've chosen to fund it with PP money to target PP families, but they didn't have to do that. The info about how the money is spent, fine - but the patronising lecture about how to be a good parent is a choice. They could have saved the money and done something else.

I agree with you, the undertone is that PP parents can't parent effectively. Which is really patronising

I know plenty of wealthy people who are utterly shit parents.

And plenty of amazing parents who may struggle for cash but are amazing in other days.

Our school make the parenting events open to all parents.

Schools do this all the time, it's not insensitive. There is a problem with the PP cohort underachieving, and with a lack of parental engagement. That's all, OP. It's nothing personal. Perhaps you don't need help, but many parents do and often benefit enormously from this kind of support.
Just leave it.

But it could be used in other ways. It didn't have to be spent on this toe curlingly patronising event.

If I had a PP child I would want it spent on tutors etc (that MC parents can pay for) not on a lecture on how being poor meant I was a shit parent

There’s not the budget for the state to help everyone. We sent our kids to good state schools with a clear acceptance that everything extra is on us. Sport / pastoral / manners / theatre / music / tutors/ travel. We pay for all that ourselves separately. Private school friends pay (albeit more) and get most of that from the school.

What you can’t do (and PP perhaps more likely do) is go state and expect anything extra. I mean you might get it but you probably won’t.

Terribly written, yes! But offensive, no.