Anyone getting Pupil Premium for their kids? How does their school administer it?

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Tell all

Lots of cross-posts

"close" "relation" "did you mean to be so rude"
Good oh.
I've not spoken to the extremely 'close relation' for many years, thank goodness

And if you think your priviledges are acceptable - subsidised rail when on above average incomes while ATOS tell people that they will "recover within 6 months" from cerebral palsy
you need to get out more.

THE UK navy has more Admirals than ships
Most army units are understaffed with soldiers, but every officer rank is full
all the redundancies have been in the ranks, but it is the gold braid that is held in overinflated triplicate

ONLY in the top end of the MOD is the retirement pension the same as the final salary (poor civil servants have to settle for half, the rest of us for 1/4)

Sorry but the Forces killed the goose a while back : military covenant cuts both ways

Talkinpeace. Woah. Did someone tread on your pet corn?

A British Army Private goes into basic training on less than 15k. He could be 28 years old with 4 kids and a wife that doesn't work. I would suggest that would bring him close to poverty.

Pupil Premium is paid to ALL those who have ever qualified for it - ie Ever6. It would cost more to look at every single case individually, therefore it is those children who receive FSM and military children.

The kids and SAHP didnt go to Libya (or rather to operational outposts in support of Libya), their military parent did. It doesn't matter where the child is.

Free train tickets are for duty travel and school children's visits only. You make it sound like I could pop up to London on the MODs ticket for a night on the piss. I can't and neither can any other serviceperson.

Most Military accommodation in London was packed up and sold off to the highest bidder eons ago. 'Subsidised housing' as you put it will be where the service person is having to live Mon-Fri because the Mess/Block is now owned by Annington Homes and rented out to civilians/councils.

If you reported and nothing happened to the seviceperson, then you were wrong and they were doing nothing wrong. Suck it up.

Stop talking bollocks.

And to go back to the OP, this is the bit that refers to how they are allowed to use the money:

Q. How will you ensure that schools spend the Premium effectively?
Schools are free to decide how to spend their Premium as they are best placed to
assess the needs of their pupils. But they will be held to account through:
? the performance tables;
? the new Ofsted inspection framework; and
? the new online reports to parents from this September
And next year we're recognising teachers and schools which do the most to boost
the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils through new awards and teacher
scholarships.

DAPHNEDIL ......you sound very entitled ! In 6 years have you not been able to fully support your child with the basics like meals and uniform ? What do you plan to do about it ? Six years is a long time - have you thought about getting a better paid job /second job ?

The subsidised rail card that we can buy gives us a third off rail travel - the same as a student travel card.

Retirement pensions are NEVER the same as final salary.

Officer ranks are not full. We are currently undermanned in the ranks of Capt, Lt Col and Col.

Not all redundancies are in the ranks. My unit alone has made redundant 7 Lt Cols, a Cdre, 2 Cols and a number of Capts

Oh and children can go to the 'local' boarding school for the duration of that posting. The service person and spouse then must both go on to the next posting, whilst the children remain in that school.

Any more?

Talkinpeace. Woah. Did someone tread on your pet corn?

Ok talkin of course you are entitled to your views but please get your facts correct.
A number of officers have been made redundant and have taken voluntary redundancy in the last three years. We have had friends that have fallen into this category from Majors to Brigadiers. There have not been any Generals as they are usually very close to retirement age and therefore it is cheaper to let then retire normally.
Now as HMM says lets get back to the original post.

I have been attacked on another thread for daring to ask why armed forces officers cant use state boarding schools for their dcs.

Why would they need to board for three years before the parent is posted, though, LtEve? And what happens if the parent decides to come out and not take a further posting? (Which happened in the case of two families I know - it was their last posting before a natural leaving point) Do they have to pay anything back?

I was going to mention state boarding schools. There should be more of them and at better schools, certainly. There's one full secondary state one in our county and one school which only takes boarders at sixth form. It's at such a good school, I wonder why it's not from 11?

Traveller children are also eligible for pp

I'm an advisory teacher for LAC, and schools I work with use the PPG for:

-1:1 tuition (outside of school)
-Extra-curricular activities such as university summer schools
-Purchasing a laptop for the child (which is theirs, not school property!)
-Theatre trips for children with an interest or aptitude for drama
-Art materials

Plus many other things. Contrary to opinion, the PPG is not ringfenced for LAC; however, OFSTED want to see proof of how the money has been used to further that particular child's educational achievement, and it is good practice to show that the school is offering Looked After Children support above and beyond what they would be able to access as a non-LAC.

No hmmanoxfordcomma, I think I haven't explained myself well.

Col x and mrs Y and the kids live in Germany. There is no senior school provision for them as soon as they hit 11.
Kids get sent to boarding school in Shrewsbury (near GPs) whilst X finishes his posting. X and Y then get posted to Catterick for a 2 years
X gets a posting to Shrewsbury for 2 years, wife goes with him kids allowed to stay in School.
X gets a posting to Oxford for 2 years, wife goes with him, kids remain in school.

Does that make more sense? It would disrupt the children more to take them out of BS for 2 years, then go back in.

If Col X then decided to PVR at the end of the Shrewsbury posting then yes, he would have to pay his CEA back.

Hope that makes sense.

soul that is a fair question I know Officers that use state boarding schools. It is a choice we all have. A number of state boarding schools tend to have weekly boarding and the majority go home on Friday and don't return until Monday morning. Many families would not want their DC to be left in the minority at a weekend if they were posted a long way away or abroad. Plus there are not state boarding schools everywhere and many families choose a school for their DC near family or friends or the airport if posted overseas.

God I've just seen another bit of bollock from TiP's angry post. Maximum CEA (Boarding School Allowance) is £6454, NOT £15K. FFS.

Oh, sure, that's perfectly understandable and acceptable.

What happened with an officer we know is they were here at a local base (SL); dc went to board at local private school in yr 5 (few miles up road). He takes a promotion to WC and a new posting up the road in a different base; dc remained in boarding school. End of this posting, he retires. The whole time just living up the road from school. Told everyone the whole time they got 90% of fees paid but wouldn't have got anything had the dc been day pupils.

Dc is now yr 11 so this is a few years ago. Were they lying? Or is this the kind of thing that would have happened and now can't?

The point about services children is that they place an extra financial burden on the schools which educate them in terms of admin and pastoral care. Whilst it isn't the case that all services children are living in poverty, many of them will have had disruption to their education and might need booster sessions to help them adjust to a new school or help them with a different syllabus. I know of one school which employs an admin assistant and study support assistant specifically for services children. Their salaries would be a legitimate use of PP money.

Hmm, he would have got whatever the maximum rate was back then, which I suppose could have been 90% depending on how expensive the school was.

I'm surprised he continued to get it if his final post was so close to the one before, but yes, things have tightened up seriously from before. There were far too many loopholes that made it worse for everyone. Claimants have to jump through a lot of hoops now, and more emphasis is placed on the HR Admin staff to check, check and recheck before claims are submitted.

He would have had to pay back the final years grant when he retired, unless the kids were in exam years.

It's a strange one, but hopefully he was bought to task and just didnt admit that to anyone.

LtEve
Kings School at Gutesloh takes up to 18 : why could the Cols kids not go there? ( I know the real answer BTW )
AND
Many wives now do NOT follow their husbands around - they have their own careers and rented houses. Why should the taxpayer subsidise a lifestyle choice ?

The person in question (in the Navy) got £4600 per term per child for the five years of post prep school.
It may have changed, and the Army may be different
but the Navy certainly do systematically bump people up a rank on retirement so that their pension equals their previous final salary
the Army are better behaved I know

Hmm 90% of their school fees could have been paid for continuity of education allowance if the fees were low. The rule is that the parents must pay at least 10% of the fees and the government will contribute the rest up to the ceiling for the allowance. There are different allowance ceilings for prep and senior schools.
The problem is that no one is a mind reader and you usually don't know where you next posting would be so as not to disadvantage the DC they are allowed to start boarding from 8 at the earliest. Sp your friend might have been posted abroad.... These rules have been changed and tightened up recently and my DCs are not part of this system now so maybe Lt Eve has the up to date regulations.

calopene, I haven't been unemployed for six years! I worked for almost 30 years full-time (apart from two six month maternity breaks). I'm a teacher, but had a breakdown four years ago, and have been unable to resume my career. It's been a hard slog getting myself into any kind of mental shape where I can work. I was claiming JSA for two years (and therefore my ds was eligible for free school meals), because the DWP kept messing up my payments when I did casual work such as supply teaching or marking exams. I have been doing private tutoring, but the JSA rules meant I could only have one student at a time. I have received no child maintenance, because my former dh is a sh*t. As it so happens I started a 16 hour per week job on 2nd September and have also registered as self-employed and picked up 9 hours of private tuition in the last two weeks alone. What were you saying about finding more work?

My ds's school still receives £900pa for him. My ds is still an "Ever6" pupil, Although he no longer receives the "perks" in the school's policy, as he is no longer eligible for free school meals, as I receive WTC. I actually think it's daft. My ds achieved three As a year early in his GCSEs and there is no way he won't achieve another two A-Cs next year. As there are only 22 pupils in his year group eligible for PP, he will account for an almost 5% improvement in the school's "closing the gap" statistics and the school will hardly have spent any of the money on him! I did buy him a new blazer, some trousers and two shirts before my eligibility ran out ;-)

talkin Kings Gutesloh is a weekly boarding school I believe. Sending your DC here does not help with the continuity of education principle as you would have to move them after a posting.

OK, sure, I get the 90% bit. Just seemed odd that they started boarding when Dad was local and he never got posted again at all (and also know of another family who did that but even longer ago again). Maybe the promotion was relevant (ie without it, he would have been posted to one of four other bases where those planes are flown only). Although Mum would definitely have remained (very 'big' job of her own in civvy street).

Anyway, I know all the lower ranked personnel locally have talked on many occasion about how they're happy it's been tightened up recently.

I'm not forces bashing at all. The Services Premium is very well spent in our local primaries who have a high turnover of pupils.

Hmm I think all ranks are pleased that they have tightened up on the regulations. Otherwise those of us who are following the rules to the nth degree get tarred with the same brush! Above all though it is fraud and IMO they should be prosecuted.
In your example it is true that certain jobs can only be done in certain areas so it does make posting predictions easier and thus an ability to play the system. However, if the Mother hadn't moved with her husband then the family would not be deemed mobile and therefore not entitled to CEA. London used to be an exception to this, but is not now and there are a few other places which don't allow accompanied service but they are few and far between.