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

No it doesn’t. It implies they’re more likely to need help than others. And that’s correct according to the data.

I wouldn't be offended, but I would contact the head and ask about these companies, who will looking to make a profit and how much they will be expecting parents to contribute. I would also inquire why the skills mentioned are not part of the general curriculum? If this support is free I will be delighted to attend- if not, how much it costs needs to be completely transparent.

It may well be that pupils receiving the premium are more at risk of under-achievement - for a number of reasons, not least financial ones. However, in my view, it is patronising and offensive and may actually do the opposite of what was intended - that is, alienate some parents.

It's been said a lot of times already, but PP funding must be spent for the benefit of PP students.

If it was general school funding, it could be spent however the school wishes.

It isn't.

So it has to be spent according to the government requirements. No doubt what else they spend it on would be explained in the first part of the seminar.

I don't know if there are parents on here whose children are eligible for the pupil premium. There was never such a thing when my children were at school, and we wouldn't have been eligible for it anyway. But my guess is that, if we had been, I would have felt a mixture of hurt and anger on receiving such a letter.

Oh for fucks sake.

That would be a shit marketing strategy wouldn’t it?

‘Let’s find the poorest parents out there and try to sell to them, this time next year we’ll be millionaires.’

And of course, schools, would not let this happen, in the extreme unlikelihood of this ever being the case.

It’s being funded by the bloody Pupil Premium funding. That’s the whole bloody point of it!

Some of the levels of comprehension displayed on this thread are pretty telling as to why some people need help with navigating their children’s schooling in order for them to excel.

There might be say 100-200 kids in the cohort who fall into the PP category across KS3.

We have ONE parent who's offended (that we know of).

The school will soon know if they've got the pitch wrong, won't they - no-one will come?

The OP's post gives the full text of the invite which explains that the seminar will present what the PP funding is spent on. No-one needs to write a letter!

You do sound as if you have a huge chip on your shoulder tbh.

I imagine reasons it's just for PP parents might be:

• because part of the purpose is to explain how PP money is used,
• because they are using PP money to fund the "light supper"?
• because they can't do it at scale for all parents.

I dunno, if you don't think it's useful then don't go. But it seems silly to turn it down just because you are offended.

Looking at them I think they'll try to sell the school something rather than parents (& will probably cost the cover of the food).

I think lots of parents won't be too thrilled to get that letter. It needed to be worded differently.

But do you think schools shouldn't be given funding to support poorer students in order to try to narrow the gap in attainment between them and everyone else? And do you think that schools should not have to use that funding specifically to help those students?

Grow up, pupil support is a multimillion pound business- if this particular foray is funded, great, don't be offended, but if if was funded as you say I would expect a mention of it in the letter.

wish this could be pinned at the top of the thread….from the gov website

The latest data shows that pupils from poorer backgrounds – those eligible for free school meals – made less progress than their peers. This was the case in every ethnic group.

Since 2010, schools in England have been incentivised by pupil premium funding to invest directly in the academic learning of disadvantaged pupils if they are not reaching expected levels. Schools receive funding for each pupil who is, or has been, eligible for free school meals, and for those who have been in care.

Pupil funding has changed the pattern of intake of disadvantaged pupils by schools. Segregation of poorer and wealthier pupils, in which pupils from poorer households are clustered in particular schools, has reduced. Schools now take more of a mix of children from poorer and wealthier backgrounds.
This is good because mixed schools create fairer and more inclusive societies where pupils are better equipped to succeed in diverse environments. What’s more, the relative disadvantage gap has slightly improved for pupils at primary school

I think you are taking it far too personally. Schools are so up against it I would be grateful for any help they offer TBH, not getting in a huff because you feel they are treating you differently. For all you know, some non PP parents are offended because you are being offered for this and they aren't.

The chance to meet and talk to staff is surely worth making the effort for, and I have sat through all sorts of seminars I thought would be pointless, and have usually learnt something anyway.

Pupil Premium children also get free school meals. Does that offend you because it's implying you can't send a good packed lunch in? Or because it's not for all the children?

Schools get a large chunk of cash for every Pupil Premium child and they have to decide how best to spend it. It MUST be spent on Pupil Premium families only, they are not allowed to spread it across all the families.

The school may have identified that these areas are things which families across the school would like help and advice on, but are only able to offer it to some families because of the PP funding. They couldn't afford to use the school's other funding to offer it to everyone. The whole point of it is to give the PP students an advantage because there is an attainment gap between PP and non-PP children.

Grow up? Are you serious?

It’s quite clear it’s a pupil premium supported workshop. Do you seriously think schools are targeting their poorest parents and tricking them into paying for seminars. Do you really think that?

Omfg I'm a secondary school governor, please tell me this is a wind up?! So they would be effectively revealing who is pp to everyone in the room. Big fat nope from me. Bloody hell. Also, loads of non pp parents and kids would benefit from the activities listed. And feeding you? How patronising. Some pp families are wealthy, there are a wide range of reasons for pp. Including kids who DO NOT KNOW they are adopted. I might be offended (the word you used) but I'd also be very very concerned about all the pp families being outed (jeez some are because of DV and living in a refuge). Absolutely clueless and batshit.

Im pp and would love that

Here's a great example of why I'm leaving teaching after 15yrs and 2yrs of school leadership...because every single email we send I know that half of the people who receive it will find some way to complain about it. Get a grip.

Not if the events aren’t paid for using PP. Many schools have evening events explaining their online systems and study guides.

All their events are on their website and in newsletters.

My sister would be offended by something like this but her kid just scored 23% on a maths test... She's the kind of parent who does NEED the help but is too proud/stubborn to appreciate it. Seriously. When you filled in school forms, your child was put into a category. That category happened to be PP. You're being offered strategies, help, someone to chat to...should you need it. If your kid is doing great at school and needs no intervention then fab. Don't go. If they're struggling in maths or keep getting sent out of class, you should probably accept.

So where is the issue

It would be shocking if any adopted children didn't know they were adopted. It might have been the case decades ago, but these days life story work us recognised as crucial.for adopted children to understand their history and identity.

No-one would be accepted as a potential adoptive parent if there were any signs that they couldn't handle being open with their adopted child about the fact they are adopted, and reasons (in an age appropriate way).

If you are a school.governor please do educate yourself.

It made me think of when Free school meals were introduced in 1906 ( I think, it was around then anyway)… FSM kids had to sit separately to eat, and as a result uptake was below 25% of those eligible as people felt stigmatised.

This sort of separating off groups and publically identifying people by socioeconomic status is well known to backfire in community settings. PP spending policy could be made available by letter/ link to the website. The workshop to the whole school.

Interestingly my DDs school allowed me to request how they spent PP for my daughter, and as she was musical they used it so she could access singing lessons. But this was quite some years ago now ( around 9 ish) and I imagine things have changed since then.