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

At our primary school PP students did get free uniform - school specific items only such as jumpers, tie.

Most councils have a uniform grant. If you get FSM, you can apply for the uniform grant. It’s usually easier to get the uniform grant as FSM is for very low income but the uniform grant can be given to people on a little higher income than that. If your council does it.

But for some it does. Not for you, so you just ignore and move on

My DC’s high-performing school in a terribly nice town used to get elevate in to tell us how to support our kids too. All of us, not just PP families. It used to piss me right off, and I think it would annoy me even more if I felt targeted. I would hope they’re trying to even the playing field, but it’s very clumsily done.

How ridiculous that you got so offended by the school checking on it's most vulnerable children.

Bullshit.

My granddaughter goes to a school for underprivileged children (in another country). The school is brilliant with a low pupil-teacher ratio and she is thriving, what's not to like?

I understand your viewpoint and feelings. But no, I don't think you're being particularly reasonable.

This event is consistent with the entire idea of pupil premium - children from lower-income homes are statistically at an educational disadvantage because they are less likely to have strong educational support at home. This statistical disadvantage is complicated, but one aspect relates to the ability of parents to confidently support academics at home. PP is allocated to schools based on the number of students who qualify based on family economic-status for the school to provide additional resources to those students; it's absolutely not an individual judgement on each child or family.

It makes sense to offer this resource to parents of children who qualify for PP in the same way that it makes sense for PP to be used to offer resources to students who qualify for PP in schools. So if you're offended by this invitation then I wonder if you also object to being offered additional programs and services based on PP.

Both parts of the evening are optional and this invitation is nothing but respectful. Go to whichever or neither you think will benefit you and your family.

Granted, but the pp I was quoting seemed to assume the op got free uniform and trips and I wanted to put them straight

I agree the session could be really good. I just think it should be open to everyone.

OR, if they can't afford to accommodate all the parents or can't fit them all in the hall or something, maybe offer to all the students the data suggests are currently underperforming against their targets. That would surely make more sense? Not trying to suggest kids always underperform due to their parents needing help with this stuff, but it's less of a logical leap than assuming parents need it because their kids are PP.

My DC are pupil premium plus kids because we adopted them and there is fuck all transparency or support from school. I’d much rather your school’s approach.

Some home environments and parental attitudes do need improving, but it has nothing to do with PP.

I’m talking about parents who discourage their children from associating with PP students.

Are you actually for real?

Source? Because you’re wrong.

Kids on PP statistically do worse than their peers. Which is why schools are thing to target the source cause; their circumstances and home life.

Are you offended that your child gets the pupil premium in the first place then? Because this is exactly what it’s for, to help students who get it as statistically they underperform as a group. Your child gets the pupil prelim and this is one of the things the school spends the money on. Don’t go if you don’t want to but I wouldn’t be turning away support for my child if it were me.

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/using-pupil-premium

Read 'why it matters'

Edited: or just the headline figures

How should it be done then?

Poverty is widely know to impact parenting. That doesn’t mean parents of children on FSMs are neglectful it simply acknowledges that having financial constraints makes parenting much harder for lots of reasons. Similarly it’s harder to parent children who are care experienced and adopted or who have complex needs. Offering support to parents in those groups is fair and reasonable. It’s not saying you’re a poor parent, it’s acknowledging the job of being a parent is made harder by virtue of life circumstance.

but your point is incorrect.
PP can be "used for whole class interventions which will also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils."
Pupil premium: conditions of grant for the 2025 to 2026 financial year - GOV.UK

No is the answer. Definitely not a teacher either

How bloody patronising!
Pupil Premium is indeed for low income families.
Pupil Premium Plus is specifically for adopted and looked after children- and this funding is meant to be used differently.

That's about classes (so students) not parents. I am sure there is funding criteria that requires you to have engaged with parents, otherwise the school wouldn't be doing it.

As a general rule, they are right. You may be great at supporting your child's learning, but one of the reasons PP pupils do badly is that their parents are less likely to support their child's learning effectively (or even at all) than the parents of pupils not eligible for PP. Yes, targeting PP pupils mean some won't need this help and some who could do with this help will be missed, but the school don't have any other tools for identifying the families most likely to benefit from this. It is also true that schools are encouraged to spend the pupil premium on help targeted at those pupils in receipt of PP. Either schools forget about trying to help PP pupils overcome their disadvantages, or they offer targeted help like this. Which do you think they should do?

@PupilpremiumWTF Are you sure that pupil premium is available for all free school dinner kids? Because that’s news to me. I thought pupil premium was very specific and hard to come by. Whereas loads of kids have free school dinners.

@PupilpremiumWTF I'm a school governor and our school does something similar, with pizza. I voted yanbu because, in your shoes, I would feel the same as you. However, statistically, pupil premium students don't do as well as others and schools are held to account for the gap. I doubt that events like this are helpful though, because the parents that need them the most are the ones that won't or can't turn up.