What can Pupil Premium be used for in schools?

[abigailfoster]

Hi Everyone, I am a finance education startup that takes school finance workshops into schools and wondered if these workshops would be covered by pupil premium? I have spent a lot of time reading up on pupil premium but there are no hard and fast rules on what can and can't be used.

I'd say no because it sounds like something that would be offered to a whole year group as part of 'standard offer'. PP should be spent on closing the educational and opportunities gap between the less well off and others in the cohort. So maths & English intervention, subsidies for optional curricular based trips, music lessons, access to ipads at home etc.

It can be used for anything. In my place of work, there’s a PP budget holder and if we feel that we could use some of the money we apply and state what positive impact the item/course/whatever will have on PP pupils. The budget holder then decides whether to release the money for the thing you have applied for.

Watching with interest.

So to answer your question, we could use PP money for your workshop but only if it was offered to exclusively PP pupils, and if we could show it would benefit them in terms of closing the gap between PP and non PP.

Anything, pretty much, if it helps close an educational gap or offers a PPG child an opportunity that they might otherwise miss. I've seen it used to pay for uniform grants, educational visits, instrument lessons, and academic support.

This is very helpful thank you everyone!

There aren’t hard and fast rules, but generally they are meant to be used for enrichment and support for Pupil Premium students.

As a school governor I’d be surprised if finance workshops would come under the usual guidelines for PP expenditure - there is a requirement for the governors to audit what PP spending is used on, and normally a PP link governor whose job it is to discuss such things with the school. Each school and governing body may have slightly different priorities for PP spending, but I would tend to think that finance workshops wouldn’t be top of the usual spending priorities for this.

Schools are seeing really acute pressures on low income and disadvantaged children and the PP premium in my school, for example, is being spent on things like individual tutoring and mentoring to help children catch up after lockdown learning gaps, play therapy and counselling services for PP children experiencing really acute welfare problems, literacy support programs, that kind of thing.

Do you envisage these workshops being only for PP pupils or for all pupils? One of the thing schools and governors are explicitly warned against using PP for, is PP being used to subsidise general spending. It must be used specifically to support the relevant PP students, rather than just be used as a general float for subsidising extra enrichment activities.

There are often times when PPG is used in a way which happens to also benefit non-PPG students. But as a PPG link governor I'd be very surprised, and less than impressed, if PPG was used for this purpose in my school.

I would love to just run specific financial education workshops for PP pupils. Not to single them out but because it is important to break down the finance literacy barriers.

Currently it goes out to all schools/all pupils.

If it’s offered to PP students then schools could use some of the budget for this if it advantaged them, yes. But there are currently a lot of other priorities post covid for PP students (and others)

I don't think many schools would consider using pp for this purpose as it would be extremely hard to justify how such expenditure would close the gap between pp kids and their more privileged peers. PP spending needs to be clearly targeted at the needs of the individuals that it is intended to support.

Most school budgets are pretty tight at the moment, and there isn't a lot of money floating around. Secondary schools are supposed to cover some aspects of financial literacy but I don't suppose they have lots of resource to invest in this area and there are some pretty good resources available free of charge, so you might find it a hard market to break into.

Arguably, pp funding could be used to fund workshops specifically for pp kids, but I think it would need to be based on a well evidenced need that pp kids were particularly in need of that input - which might or might not be the case.

I agree it would be difficult to evidence. Furthermore I can imagine an outcry from parents, as targeting PP kids for financial education could be getting close to 'victim blaming' - your kids are on PP as you are rubbish with money so we are going to teach your children to be better...

Yeah, I’d be a bit concerned that workshops only for PP students would send a message that more well off children didn’t have to develop those skills but PP children do! I’m not sure that’s the greatest message to send kids. It would be difficult to justify why these workshops would specifically close an attainment gap for PP students - after all, it’s their parents who are financially earning less, not them personally.

if I was you, OP, I’d look at various local businesses or funds which might offer grants to run these for all students - business organisations like the CBI, IOD or British Chambers of Commerce often have outreach or education funds or know of initiatives for promoting financial literacy - the DfE may also have some relevant initiatives or links to charities that might support workshops like this, esp with the new statutory PSHE curriculum. Take a look at the relevant bits of the National curriculum; you might well find organisations who would support a programme to deliver these. Secondary level/key stage 3 might be a good target level - as a governor I’d be concerned about the additional cost of paying for an external provider at primary level, but can see a greater role for this at secondary level.

My DD's old secondary used 'The Real Game'. here is the link to the NZ version www.careers.govt.nz/resources/tools-and-activities/the-real-game/
(for some reason I can't find the UK link)

I assume OP you are aware of this: www.young-enterprise.org.uk/teachers-hub/financial-education/support-training/the-quality-mark/

I also thought it could come across like victim blaming. As if poor people are only poor because they don't know how to manage their money.

www.gohenry.com/uk/blog/news/were-working-with-cbi-economics-and-wilson-wright-to-prioritise-financial-education

www.tcfc.org.uk/

moneyandpensionsservice.org.uk/financial-education-in-schools/?cn-reloaded=1

And have a look at stuff like this OP, for ideas & potential links to funding sources from business/third sector partnerships for financial literacy / education in schools.

If its service pupil premium then absolutely nothing if our school is anything to go by. I grew up in a poor household and would have found financial sessions really useful to be honest, I would let assumptions of how people might feel get in the way of trying to support young people that need it.

Obviously meant to say wouldn't let!

Thank you, everyone. In no way would I be blaming anyone, I run these workshops to help with everybody's finance education we cover topics that they can use personally to help in the future like reading a payslip. As I am not a bank I don't ever push products I truly believe finance education can have a huge impact to reduce gender gaps in our society. My reason for discussing pupil premium is I would love for those who can get more of it if they can use this funding but wouldn't single anyone out.

Thank you, I totally agree.

I am thank you :)