Pupil premium plus for adopted children. How is yours being spent?

[oinker]

Hi,
Is there anyone out there who has experience of this funding and how best it could help now for the future? Any advice greatly appreciated.

My school has received DS's grant and I have been approached by the head. I've been asked how I would like the money spent. I just thought this money would disappear into funding the school for indiscriminate things.

Any ideas on how best to have it spent on DS?
He's being measured for a Violin next week. I thought Violin lessons would be of benefit. Music is a great discipline. He's shown an interest in playing musical instruments. DS has no educational or behavioural issues so I'm not too sure how best to have this money spent on him. He's 6 years old.

I have no experience but it is nice to hear the head has approached you to find out what you think.

Music lessons sound like a great idea, that or a drama club or something similar I think. Music is probably particularly good because it is a way to 'escape' from stress or anxiety, learning to read music, coordination, confidence, a challenge. So many advantages even if he only does it for a couple of years. drama is another good one because it can help build confidence.

I know a couple of families with children who qualify for pupil premium stuff and they get to do school clubs and activities free I think so they can choose from sports, dancing, drama and so on.

Fantastic that they've asked you

Even with no educational issues, it can be used for extension work, to spur a good achiever onto better things. Subsidising violin lessons sounds great.

It could also be used to fund training for the SENCO in attachment issues, which may help down the line.

We were told DD2 could do drama club for free. We said we were more than happy to fund that ourselves (but she did get a priority place) as we want her PPP money to fund expertise that we can't easily access, and preferably expertise in school hours when DD2 is at her most receptive.

The school needs to be able to show Ofsted that it is using its PP and PPP money for the children who qualify for it, not just disappearing into a general pot.

The Sutton Trust/EEF Toolkit is a really good resource to inform the PPP spend.

Broadly speaking, 1:1 tuition (which need not take place at school- the school can buy in private tuition to happen at home if appropriate) is an excellent use of the money- as Teen and Tween says, the money is not to 'fix problems', but to ensure that children reach their academic potential. For some children, extra-curricular clubs and activities do this by broadening horizons and raising aspirations.

Using the money to train staff in attachment issues is a great investment, although I would avoid training just one member of staff as the goal is to create an 'emotionally friendly' school environment, so the knowledge should be cascaded to all staff. Having someone come in an run a session for as many staff as possible produces the best results, IME.

It really depends on the child's needs and strengths.

When thinking about the spending of the PPP, a good rule of thumb is that if it's part of the school's universal offer (i.e. it is available for all pupils), then it is not a good use of the money. It should provide support over and above that which is available to all.

Thank you all for your responses.

Mumsnet is the best source of information. This has really helped. We have a meeting with the head tomorrow so will put something together for this.
He's being measured up for his violin so I'm pleased things are progressing.

You have all been really helpful.

I was going to suggest the Sutton Trust toolkit as well, although it's interesting that many of the the things they think have the biggest impact on learning don't actually cost much/any money... So it's worth asking the head whether they already have some of those approaches in place.

It's also worth keeping in mind, as your ds goes through school, that the pp is intended to ensure kids with disadvantages succeed to the very best of their ability, even if they don't seem to have any obvious problems. Some schools think that, if a child in receipt of pp is doing well, they don't need to focus on them as much. But the pp is intended to close the gap between how an individual child is doing, and how they might have done if they weren't part of a disadvantaged group. So a child in receipt of pp who is on track for a Level 5 at the end of primary school, for example, should receive as much benefit from the pp as one on track to receive a Level 3 - because it's about helping them to reach their own potential.