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

"Disadvantaged" isn't exactly the same as "Pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium" (because of technical reasons over how FSM are measured and other ressons) but it's close enough. Here's the GCSE results stats for this year.

If I was one of the easily offended brigade, I might feel offended that my non PP child and me weren’t being offered the same expert guidance that PP kids and their families get.

I’m guessing you are probably a glass half empty person. As a glass half full person myself, I’d be happy my child was being offered this kind of assistance.

It does sound a bit patronising, but I’m sure it’s meant well.

If you’re not comfortable with going, then you don’t have to. It’s just an invitation.

Depriving kids (non-pp ones) of something when it makes no difference to the pp ones whether they get it too isn't being fair. It's being ideological and perverse.

It's not "levelling down". No students are brought down by this process.

OP get that chip off your shoulder and your head out of your bottom. This is about your child, not you.

it could be that more parents in that bucket do need extra support so I’d put your pride aside and realise it’s probably for the greater good even if it’s not something you need.

Thanks for that I think is same as our PEF budget here. Lots of work to document the use and success of the spending.

I can understand why people feel there's stigma. I've felt that myself as an SEN parent.

But there being outliers in every group doesn't take away the need (indeed, the duty) for schools to attempt to address disadvantage and to report on how taxpayers' money was spent.

If your child falls into one of these groups, maybe because of a past situation that's been resolved. Take what's useful? Ignore what's not? Try not to take it personally?

It is exactly levelling down. Instead of supporting all kids to achieve as much as they are personally able to, they are deliberately restricting access to the sessions for some - even though it would make no difference to the pp kids if it was opened up - because that will 'close the attainment gap'.

That is so true. And as I keep saying, privilege attracts more privilege.

In your haste to be offended you missed the part about chatting informally to staff and other parents. That is an opportunity for you to contribute to other parents. You can explain how your already superior system and methods work so well on your DC.
Your chance to GIVE.

As a school governor at two different schools and lecturer/researcher in education I see no evidence that this will do more harm than good.

And when all the available spaces on this workshop go to the not PP kids (which they definitely will) that will be lovely and fair, won’t it?

It comes down to whether you believe that universal offers are more effective than targeted offers, I suppose. And there's an awful lot of evidence on the marketing side that targeted works better (it would be interesting to know the reasoning that being in a PP category briefly follows you through school - maybe it should be re-evaluated after a couple of years). There will be research I expect.

It is immaterial in this case though. The PP money is awarded, from government, on the basis that it is spent in ways to benefit PP kids (as defined by government criteria) and reported back on (as required when the school accepts the money).

As I said earlier, we're potentially talking about hundreds of thousands of pounds at a time of falling school budgets and rising poverty generally. Not a small amount.

If you genuinely feel that pupil premium is a misguided system then the route to complain about that is to your MP, and/or looking carefully at party manifestos for next year, not moaning at the school.

Although if I thought a school event was iffy I'd go along and see what was actually said.

I think you should get a grip. School's are told to be clear on how they spend pupil premium funding and are often scolded for poor communication. Here you have an example of being given full details of how government money is being spent on YOUR child whilst being offered refreshments and you have the cheek to be offended. Pull yourself together. If your child underperformed and the school was seen to do nothing, you would probably complain and the school will have to answer to questions from above as to what measures they should have taken.

You need to look at the bigger picture, no one is trying to offend you personally. In some schools, similar evenings are also offered to all exam level students. Unfortunately it is often the parents from more affluent backgrounds that show up, who are not offended, and take all the information given to help support their kids. Thus the cycle of the attainment gap continues... Staying at home in a huff doesn't help anyone!

The mention of PP could have been different (unsure how )

But , PP kids are vulnerable (attainment gap ) and not all have supportive parents (like )
Good on the school !
Go or don’t go - think of your child

People not understanding how statistics work on this thread is utterly shocking. The existence of outliers above the line of best fit does not refute the base claim which is derived from the average PP student cluster, not outliers.

Pupil Premium students as a COLLECTIVE have worse educational outcomes due to a host of factors compared to non-PP students. This is not the same as saying EVERY PP student has worse outcomes than non-PP students. It means if you were to line up in ascending order the GCSE maths grade for every single PP student in the country against the GCSE maths grade for every non-PP student in the country, the average grade for PP students would be much lower.

Chinese and Indian students as a collective have better educational outcomes due to a host of factors compared to students from other ethnicities. This is not the same as saying EVERY Chinese or Indian student has better outcomes than students from other minorities. A Chinese student failing every single GCSE doesn’t refute the claim that the group as a collective does better on average.

Policy decisions derived from statistics are based on a population level not an individual level. If PP students as a collective cohort didn’t perform worse academically then Pupil Premium wouldn’t exist in the first place as a method of support.

Just because you’re part of a cohort that does worse educationally does not mean you as an individual will do worse educationally.

The average divorce rate is around 50%. That does not mean your individual chance of being divorced is 50%. Some ethnic minorities have a divorce rate of less than 6% whilst others have rates of 70%+. It’s an average statistic.

Conclusions derived from statistical data are derived from the average data set, not tails of the bell curve. Why would they be?! They’re based on averages, not individual outliers. A pupil premium student achieving all level 9’s in their GCSE doesn’t refute the trend line showing the AVERAGE cluster of PP students will achieve lower than the average cluster of non-PP students.

If there wasn’t this statistical gap in the first place then pupil premium wouldn’t exist in the first place would it? Why do you think that funding is there in the first place? What do you think it is for?!

Statistically kids entitled to PP have poorer outcomes.
The school seems like they want to improve outcomes
They're trying to get the parents of this group of kids onboard
They're offering food as an incentive

If they had a budget to offer an incentive buffet tea to all parents so they'd listen to the advice they probably would. But they're choosing to target their money where they think it might make the biggest impact.

Parents who have kids that are entitled to PP get it because they earn less money. Among the reasons for their low income are poor parental education, lack of ambition, disillusionment with the system, additional educational needs. Parents who are in this boat will not have their own experience of good study skills, which can be taught to them easily through this event. Therefore breaking generational poor outcomes.

@PupilpremiumWTF if you did well in school; if you value the power of education; if you are on a low income for reasons other than your own poor educational outcome then this isn't the event for you. But you do need to acknowledge that in that case you might not be representative of the group.

Giving support to those most in need of it is not "levelling down". Do you think that schools shouldn't give extra support to children who are struggling with reading to help them catch up with the good readers? Because that is an exact corollary to what is happening here - helping those most disadvantaged to do better. It is not in any way dragging down the performance of any child.

Supportive parents like you

I just looked up the data for some local Primary schools to see what the pupil premium data was for KS2 in 2024. Disadvantaged pupils (ie those in receipt of PP) do particularly badly in this region of the country

The percentage of non-disadvantaged pupils achieving expected standard in Maths and English at KS2 in this local authority area was 63%, the percentage for all pupils was 57%. I looked at 4 schools ranging from poor performance to high performance. The percentage of pupil premium children achieving expected standard ranged from 17% to 43%.

But if they offered it to everyone they would be inviting hundreds and hundreds of parents! They'd have to limit numbers. Many of the places would be nabbed by parents who accepted who don't need what was on offer, but would feel they should go because it looks keen.

Teachers and schools are judged by how much progress Pupil Premium students make. Schools can't give targeted help to these students if they don't target them. Offering help to the students' families is one way to do this. I do understand why you feel offended, but I still don't think the school is in the wrong. Their priority is to help those who need it. If, statistically, a particular group is more likely to benefit from help, then that's the group you offer help to.

To be fair statistically children in receipt of pp do have poorer outcomes than the mean average so maybe they don't have room:facilities to offer this to everyone so are starting with what thr stats tell them may need it most. ( of course allowing for the fact that there will be a large cohort in that group who a) don't need it at all or b) won't engage anyway.

I couldn't get worked up about this

Sounds like the school can’t do right for wrong.

You get the benefit of PP, why not engage? Why not have a say?

Some schools pay for music lessons, some contribute towards trips -

I think it would be interesting!!

But I think it’s been done rather columbus and those they are trying to reach won’t attend anyway.