WWYD 191+ cheating to get pupil premium

[TipsyRedCrow]

So I have found out a mum fiddled her books to get pupil premium for her child's grammar school application. The results came out yesterday and I cannot help but think others must do this and rob deserving children of a genuine place. Looking for advice on whether to ignore or report- is it my business?

*11+

How can you fiddle pp?

Yeh I am also wondering how you would do this? PP relates to things like FSM which is a very high bar tbh (or a low bar depending on how you look at it). Does PP allow you to pass 11+ with a lower mark? Apols I am not up to speed with the significance as do not live in a grammar area.

People get PP for all sorts of reasons that have nothing to do with income.

Actually it is literally based on numbers of DC on FSM and those who are LAC.

Pupil premium is something allocated to the school. If a child is fsm or has been fsm the school receives additional funding.

Grammar school places are allocated based on which students achieve the pass mark and then which of those meet the schools entry criteria.
if a child get a grammar school place it just means the school the child goes to will receive that additional pupil premium funding.

the places are not allocated based on if you’re a pupil premium child.

Not sure why op is insinuating cheating?!

Wannabes. If they were reeeeally clever they would get EHCPs because they get loadsa money with them 🙄

How on earth do you fiddle pp?

Some grammar schools reserve a proportion of places for those with pupil premium or allow them to have lower test results. I know a family whose child had pupil premium because they did not declare one of the parent’s cash in hand income. They got priority for over subscribed schools.

Are you sure they're fiddling the system? Pupil premium can be allocated to children whose families have previously qualified for FSM (even if their circumstances have subsequently changed and they're now millionaires) or if the child is or has ever been under local authority care (i.e adopted or fostered).
It's entirely possible that you don't know as much about this family's personal circumstances as you think.

Do you mean they’re committing benefit fraud?
pp is for any dc whose family are on certain benefits (or have been within the last 6 years - you could be a millionaire but had a rough year and still be entitled to pp)
child in care
military family dc

how on earth can you fiddle that? It doesn’t give extra points in the 11+

@Stopsnowing pupils still need to do the entrance test (or tests) and then get put into a separate smaller pool of children that are then ranked or selected from.

Also if at any point in 6 years the child has been on free school pupils they qualify for pupil premium - even if parents now or recently have better jobs / higher income / won the lottery.

My local grammar school has allocated certain number of places for students who are receiving pupil premium. For these places they have lowered the pass mark slightly. (By 7 marks) So I don't know how you can fiddle books to get PP, but if you do some grammar's can offer a place even if your child didn't achieve the pass mark.

FSM (and as a result PP) have been semi-permanent for quite a while, during the rollout of Universal Credit. (This will end in May 2025 and all families will need to be means-tested again on a regular basis.)

If your friend was eligible for FSM at any time since Summer-ish 2019, then the child will still have it (and also PP).

I know at least one person whose child was on FSM at one point in that time but wouldn't be eligible now.

It does not give extra points but it asks for a lower score + higher priority on admission criteria. So that’s that.

I'd guess what the OP means by fiddling is she's self employed and either doesn't declare stuff (illegal) or spends a year (or however long) putting money back into the business so she can say she received less money (legal, you can decide or not if you think morally wrong).
People used to do similar to try and get assisted places.

Travelling back in time six years to be eligible for free school meals.

Travelling back in time to adopt a child from local authority care.

Travelling back in time to serve in the military.

It's bollocks, in short.

I don’t see how it is possible to fiddle pupil premium unless they are fiddling benefits too. As a PP said, pupil premium continues for 6 years after eligibility for FSM so it is possible for the DC of millionaires to be receiving PP if they were previously eligible for FSM. I know of a DC whose parents are wealthy professionals who receives PP because they were previously eligible for FSM. They may have a very comfortable life now but I also have no doubt that living in poverty when they were younger did have an impact on their education that didn’t stop the day they no longer were eligible for FSM.

Oh interesting. I went to a grammar school in Kent but my dc have grown up away from all of that. Still not sure how you’d trick the system as the criteria is ridged.