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

I’m glad you’ve reiterated that point. I have mentioned a couple of times that PP doesn’t only apply to those on free school meals. People are offended by so much nowadays. I wouldn’t be a teacher for double their salary, not because of the pupils, but having to deal with some parents.

Also PP lasts for 6 years, so you may no longer have income that qualifies you for FSM

I have always worked in schools so totally understand this. But so much time and resources are offered to students that just don't need it.

Surely better to look at the PP stats, then look at the ones that are actually struggling from those, and offer the help to them. Otherwise people like me are just taking a spot that someone else actually needs and would benefit from.

Being offended for being given extra advice, support & monetary reward!

We get lots of these SEN invites because my daughter is Dyslexic. Open mornings, the chance to meet other parents with SEN children.
I'm not offended at all, any extra support I can get for my children is fabulous. They may suggest something that I haven't thought of.....
As a previous Chair of Governors in a school.... PP students are a low performing group.m...lots of the children have SEN too.

I'm still not offended.

@SurvivalInstinctsOfABakedPotato problem is they have to show they are using PP across all PP children. Obviously, better that they target the support where needed. It is hard to show impact on children where there is no attainment gap and no pastoral support etc is needed

Exactly! That’s why I have little sympathy for anyone these days. People are so damn ungrateful.

That's fantastic!

I have only ever twice (in 5 years since my DC's been "officially SEN") had an invite like that: the first time I was teaching and couldn't go and the second time there was no opportunity to talk to other parents, just listen to the SENCO.

It's very lonely.

Mumsnet has been a real find though for that.

Sen is not the same as PP. A child from any background can have Sen.

Saying pp students are a low performing group is also pretty ignorant btw as you're lumping all PP students together and students may be on pp for many different reasons. Some of those children won't be low performing at all.

It is not ignorant, it is a fact. On average, there is a huge gap between disadvantaged children and non disadvantaged. I cannot fathom how some won't just accept this is a persistent problem that needs to be solved.

Woaaahhhh!
How judgemental is that!
Practice what you preach OP!

There's a significant overlap between PP and SEND. PP funding is much more straightforward though (in part because it's paid directly to schools rather than via the LA?)

I found this interesting blog from a SEND specialist detailing what he thinks PP programmes could learn from SEND.

SEND, Pupil Premium & parents https://share.google/B6MfDwjrrkRkGJvxh

Speaking as a SEND parent - your child doesn't need to be out of education long for a parent to lose their job (normally the mum). Most single parent families are headed by women, and single parent families tend to be poorer, for obvious reasons. So that gives a linkage.

I suggest you just say "No thank you" and move on with your comfortable life.

I think if you do your research, that's the evidence you'll find !!!

I agree, the OP's attitude to this is quite shocking & unpleasant.

Imagine if you were one of the teachers/senior school leaders who offered this and then saw one of the parents from your school complaining about it like this online?
The vast majority of state schools & teachers bend over backwards to offer support to their children & families & are working in difficult circumstances due to lack of funding.
As I said before, the attitudes on this thread are depressing &, at times, ridiculous.

Just as a child from any background may qualify for PP or PP+. There will be adopted and cared for children who need massive support and others who need little. There will be children whose well educated parents’ situation changes, who find themselves qualifying for free school meals, and others whose families have had FSMs through the generations.

Statistics show overall results, but there are always exceptions. The results of research, as has been pointed out many times here, prove that a much larger proportion of PP recipients do less well in education than those who don’t qualify. Disadvantage isn’t just about money or income.

"Low performing" relative to an average or perhaps relative to achievement at primary ("high prior attainment") doesn't mean "low ability" though. There are lots of factors that might lead to low performance, only a few of which are in the control of the school.

Whilst true, the reason a former LAC child is likely to have a large performance gap is probably going to be different to service children, which is likely to be different again to families in poverty.
Assuming the parents of this entire group need a session on "how to enable good study skills" IS patronising.

It's complex. Low income could lead to low attainment (e.g. housing is overcrowded meaning lack of space to study/lack of internet for example) and other factors could lower income but the income's the symptom not the cause (lack of adoption support/parent can't work due to needs of adopted child/parent can't work due to needs of SEND child/parent can't work due to being trailing spouse of military).

One would hope the parents who would find it useful would attend though?

People need to realise some of the implications of real poverty.
In the school I was CoG the new school trust stopped providing children with a snack! Some children thier school dinner & snack provided were the only meals that ate in the day.
Teachers started funding the children's snacks our of fear!
The link between SEND & PP overlaps dramatically.

No children automatically have excellent study skills. If every parent knew the curriculum and the examination board specifications, and the evidence behind learning strategies, that would support teaching. If every parent understood how to teach behaviour and literacy. If every parent knew the cognitive science of study skills, metacognition ... it would all support children at school.

Most don't wish, or need, to know in such detail, and time and funding are barriers, but it's sufficient for kids to have that input at school. But where schools work in partnership with as many parents as possible, things are better.

If you have a cohort that attract additional funding per pupil in the category (because they're already at a disadvantage one way or another) and you can therefore offer those parents something extra to compensate, you can do some good.

The white boys from poorer families are likely to be eligible for pupil premium. Same way that other groups (for example, Mixed White and Black Caribbean, SEND K code, EAL A & B proficiency, Young Carers, LACs, PLACs, on a CP plan or with an attendance below 90%) will have shown to have an attainment/progress gap in the post results analysis. There's also the kids who weren't able or even here to sit KS2 SATs who wouldn't show up in progress measures - they can also attain lower than school based assessments might indicate was possible at the start of Y7.

However, apart from the obvious issues with perceptions of a meeting and support for just one ethnicity (eta: it's apparently not obvious that people will complain 'why do the immigrants/travellers/muslim children get free tuition and my child doesn't?'), refugees/EAL in early acquisition/NRPF, PLAC or LAC, for example, the one very common denominator is that most will also be eligible for pupil premium, the source of the funding. So a pupil premium provision is the most inclusive and appropriate way to go.

Apart from a caretaker, some staff (a mixture of directed time and 'it is a normal part of your job to do events when we ask/tell you to') that will likely cost no extra, other than food, the talk at the event itself will be provided by the company for free as part of the money they are being paid to offer tuition for a particular group.

Massive over reaction. Schools just can't win whatever they do.

Then don’t go. I see it as the school being proactive in ultimately trying to help kids who are on PP who do statistically worse than those not on PP. The reason they have only invited parents whose kids get PP is because they are explaining what the money received for PP is used on. I genuinely don’t see why you are offended. Sometimes schools are damned if they do, damned if they don’t.

Are you genuinely offended or gloating