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 don't need to invent figures. They're readily available on the .gov site.

The gap's around 25% between PP and non PP nationally (meaning England) (for core GCSEs at "passing" grades). I posted the figures earlier. "Non PP" doesn't mean "rich". Real wages have lagged prices for a considerable time in this country.

The government were trying to amend the school funding formula a few years back (for England) to address regional imbalances, but it would have meant taking funding from London schools which historically have been funded above average.

PP is redistributive though. North Eastern schools have the highest rates in the country, over 35%.

The tax take that pays for the education system, including PP, comes largely from London and the SE with the rest of the country being net recipients on the whole (meaning the UK).

It's a minefield...

As a school governor who sees the data I totally agree. The school is doing its best to help level the playing field.

It’s unfortunately true. Schools consistently intervene to help close the gap. There will always be individual outliers but across any cohort Nationally PP kids don’t perform as well.

@ThisOldThang the Government seems to do that in reverse! Devon is an area that gets some of the lowest funding for schools under the funding formula.

And the results for disadvantaged pupils are some of the lowest too. See attached

Basically OP w are lucky to live in a country that is giving PP to some students - extra funding wahoo! And you are finding it hard to swallow as you don’t want the stigma of being PP. but you are PP, so grab any help with both hands.

Ha ha ha ha.

You think the government who brought it in did so out of compassion?

Iirc it was brought in by the coalition government to close the gap. Can't see what is wrong with that?

Perhaps if they hadn’t taken a fuckload of other stuff away as well I would see it as a positive initiative.

Am i missing something but looks fine to me?

It can make parents of children on PP feel that they lack skills that others don't, risks breaching privacy and can feel quite stigmatising.

@Thekidsarefightingagain other parents won’t know who this has been sent to. The parents then have a choice to attend.

Assume if you don’t attend you might be sent links, copy of slides etc.

Statistics show PP children are generally disadvantaged educationally. Schools have to show how they are spending PP funding on all PP children not just those who have low attainment.

Exactly this.

I honestly don't see it as that and am sure that's not what it's about.
Those ideas/skills are relevant to all new pupils and any parent of a secondary school pupil would probably learn something useful if they attended.
But the school have chosen to use PP funding to offer something useful & extra to PP families.

Rather than being offended & posting on MN, why doesn't the OP see it as what is is, an offer of some extra info that she is lucky to receive.

I think the OP has revealed more about her view & attitude towards PP families than the school actually has.

I think you have valid point OP and i would make it to the school and ask thrm to explain. I'd also want assuramces that rhe company doing the presentation aren't going to try and sell you something.

It's not your timemanagement that they will be offering you tips on but how to help your child with their time management, something lots of kids with additional needs struggle with

I wonder if the company are funding the cost of the food as that often happens with events. They probably will try to sell something.

I’ve got to be honest I found the email a bit patronising, why have they assumed you need time management and motivational skills. Unless I believed I needed help in these areas I wouldn’t attend. I wouldn’t lose any sleep over it though either. Just a no thank you from me

Because the statistics show that children on PP do achieve lower grades than people who aren’t. That’s the whole point of PP to help those children achieve their potential. Lower income parents may not have had a good education, role models, routine etc and this is to help with that. There also may be looked after children who struggle with those things and some parents might want support on how to help their child.

It’s an offer of help, not a demand. If you need it, take it. If you don’t, then don’t. No need to get offended over it.

My children aren’t in school but one of them does receive PP at nursery. I wouldn’t really care if anyone knew but I understand why you wouldn’t want to be identified.

It's kind of like offering parents of children with SEND a parenting course and identifying the children with SEND.

If the company are trying to sell something they are looking at the wrong demographic of the parent group.

@Thekidsarefightingagain schools do offer sessions for parents of children with SEND, and may get other organisations in who can offer support.

The session offered to OP is to give ideas on how they can help their DC with their studying time management etc

I understand why you’re offended but they have probably identified that their PP cohort tends to do less well than they should based on prior attainment or maybe in comparison to the non-PP. This is one thing they are trying.

They will be targeting PP parents as those children (as shown by the evidence) don’t tend to do as well overall in their GCSEs. That’s a total generalisation obviously. To be honest it sounds really useful and it’s a shame they don’t have the capacity to offer it to all but this will be in their SIP of how they are helping those groups that tend to underachieve vs the average. It’s partly box ticking but actually also sounds like a genuinely good idea. I’d definitely be interested if I were a PP parent.

I would be extremely offended that it is only for students receiving a pupil premium. I think the subject matter is very important and could be helpful - but for all parents. It implies that all children receiving a pupil premium have parents who need a lot of guidance - whereas guidance is probably needed for all parents.