Can a child receive Pupil Premium funding at a private school?

[dairymilkisevil]

DD is at private school on a hefty scholarship and bursary.

I now receive child tax credit and have an income of £4K per year. I am separated very recently hence why I am now claiming.

Next school I hope to get DD into is a grammar and its admissions rules say that kids who are receiving pupil premium (ie, it says, those who receive free school meals) get priority admission. We are out of catchment otherwise, but it's a terrific school and it would be great if she could go there through this rule.

However, with DD currently being at private school, the fees there include lunch anyway. So she doesn't get free school meals because nobody there pays extra for them, IYSWIM.

So How I can improve to the grammar school that she is eligible for free school meals / pupil premium? Do private schools have access to the Pupil Premium for the kids there who are on bursaries mama scholarships?

If pupil premium funding goes to private schools then that is an absolute scandal.

Replying to some unpleasant posts, not OP. PP or FSM is a measure of poverty. You can still be poor and go to a private school and the fact of private school doesn't make you any less poor or disadvantaged. I have taught some extremely disadvantaged children on full bursaries at an independent school (currently teaching in state school) with phenomenal barriers to overcome. The private school doesn't get rid of those barriers e.g. being from an extremely low income single parent family on a council estate in a deprived town where nobody has been to university, even though it might bring with it certain advantages depending on the school. If you were from a low income family but attending a private school you would rightly still be entitled to the additional support offered by universities too.

Independent schools do NOT receive PP funding or money for FSM. Independent schools offer bursaries to pupils from low income families usually on a sliding scale.

Sorry Suburban but I work then and they do!
It’s not a local council and the circumstances are v very different from the ops.

As a point of fact, there were some children at my previous independent school who were as poor and disadvantaged as the poorest child in my current state school. 100% bursary + second hand uniform + other forms of hardship funds means they can still attend.

And like I said it’s not for fees but for additional support and enrichment

Pam, no, they won't get PP funding and PP it's not specified what it would be used for. There IS funding for pupils on an ECH plan however. Perhaps that's what you're thinking of.

Sorry Suburban but I work then and they do!
It’s not a local council and the circumstances are v very different from the ops.

If it is true, that’s a shocking waste of government money to give further advantage to children who already get a massive hand up past disadvantaged children at state schools.

Apparantly a child who is adopted out of care and who then goes to an independent school entirely funded by the LEA does attract PP funding. I am guessing there are loads of children like that.......

If you're paying for a current place with your own savings then perhaps I'm missing something but I fail to see how you can be eligible to receive PP or FSM funding, both which are for the truly financially disadvantaged which it appears you are not.

At the same time you say that you are receiving tax credits. Did you tell them about your savings and any other income you had which pays for private education?

You sound like a monumentally CF trying to claim a perceived advantage for your child in getting to grammar school by being prepared to lie about your financial situation.

You think it’s a scandal that a parent with an income of £4K pa who has a kid on a scholarship should somehow get into a grammar?

@dairymilkisevil phone the grammar, explain your circumstances and ask what income documentation they need exactly and explain why you don’t qualify for fsm right now.

"You think it’s a scandal that a parent with an income of £4K pa who has a kid on a scholarship should somehow get into a grammar?"
No. I think it's a scandal that a child who has had all the advantages that private school gives should also get the tiny advantage that is available to children from very disadvantaged backgrounds without a private school education.

Why don't people seem to understand that going to private school (on a bursary) does not make you any less poor than a child who is not at private school?

It may not make you any less poor than going to state school-although I would be interested in how many PP type poor children there are in private schools- but it does make you less disadvantaged.

No, I think it's a scandal that the OP wants to get kid into grammar school and seems to think that claiming PP will help this happen.

No mention of doing the 11+ like everyone else who wants to go to a grammar school has to combined with a rather unfortunate provision of information from OP about financial circumstances and savings which would tend to suggest that actually, PP/FSM would not be available to them.

That's what's makes this a CF.

Bertrand, that is not the case. Private school would not alter the disadvantages of living in poverty in a single-parent family where you on a deprived council estate where nobody in your family has been to university, your parents can't afford to buy books, clothes or school uniform or even decent food. Not a jot.

PP funding DOES go to state grammar schools and to excellent schools. Do you think these schools also cancel out the effects of living in poverty? Research suggests otherwise.

Universities also offer additional financial and other support to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Do you also think this is unfair if the funding is from Oxford as opposed to Poppleton ex poly?

Bertrand, up to 30% of children at private schools are on some sort of bursary. A full bursary at many private schools goes to children where the FAMILY income is less than £12000. There may well be more poor children at a private school on bursaries than there would be poor children at a state grammar school or outstanding secondary in the same town where you would have to have paid for tutors or be able to afford an astronomically priced house in the catchment.

sleeping, it's not CLAIMING PP. State grammar schools now have a remit to show how they are promoting social mobility (everyone now agrees that poor children are currently less likely to get into a state grammar school). If your income is less than 4k than you definitely fall into the category of disadvantaged and therefore could be entitled to special consideration depending on the school's admission policy.

This is the same as Oxbridge universities giving special consideration to students from backgrounds or schools which do not typically lend themselves to Oxbridge entry.

Nostaples- if you think there would be no difference in that attainment and life chances of a child from a severely disadvantaged background at the end state primary or private primary then you must know some pretty crap private schools.

"State grammar schools now have a remit to show how they are promoting social mobility"

Some do. Many don't.

But the promoting social mobility aspect has already been addressed with the bursary to private school, hasn’t it?
Not many children from non affluent backgrounds get to do this, and although the children could be said to be still “disadvantaged” in that they won’t have the ponies, skiing holidays, etc that most of their private school peers enjoy; this is not the sort of disadvantage that PP was designed to eliminate

Bertrand, I could represent your argument by saying you are making a big assumption about the power of private schools to affect life chances.

I'm not sure how you think that a private school education cancels out the effects of poverty any more than a state grammar education or an outstanding comprehensive.

I would love to know how many children from PP poor families go to private schools on full bursaries. If you believe Mumsnet, the schools are bursting with them.

Nostaples- we are discussing primary schools.

Can you say, with a straight face that a disadvantaged child from a private school is no more likely to pass the 11+ than a disadvantaged child from a state school?