Pupil Premium

[Spitfire007]

On a schools oversubscribtion criteria, it say : "Applicants residing in the school’s catchment area who are in receipt of pupil premium".

What does Pupil Premium mean ?

Thanks in advance!

Pupil premium is given to schools to help disadvantaged children of all abilities to help close the gap between their peers. Such as children in care, and children from non wealthy homes

Hope that helps

It's extra funding for children who are either on free school meals or have been at any time over the past 6 years (excluding early primary when all children get FSM). The money is meant to be used to 'close the gap' between poorer children and their richer counterparts.

X-post, sorry Spook!

OIC, thank you!

I had to do a presentation on this, the figures for the gap are shocking and worrying. Only 27% instead of the national average of 54% (at the time I wrote my presentation) got 5 GCSEs including English and Maths.

Not all children who come from disadvantaged backgrounds are falling behind, and not all children who aren't on free school meals do well.

The school will receive £935 additional funding per pupil for years 7-11.

Those who are looked after or have been adopted after previously being looked after will net the school £2300 for every pupil.

The school has to declare where they spend their pupil premium and there are rewards for those schools who use it creatively and effectively. They win "experiences" so an afternoon with the London Symphony Orchestra or a dance workshop.

It also covers Forces children who might have to change schools frequently due to parents being posted. That’s paid at a lower rate. It’s a fairly unusual admission criteria though, but welcome and inclusive. Does the school get over subscribed from its catchment area?

As a side point, universal primary FSM is only for KS1. It's (ironically) become a problem for primary schools as the universial provision up to Y3 disincentivises eligilbe families from signing up for FSM, which they still need to do for the school to receive the extra funding. So lots of work has to be put in by schools to get the families to fill in the paperwork even if they don't "need" to.

OP, if you're interested you can see the school's performance data for disadvantaged (ie Pupil Premium) children on the gov's Compare School Performance site. It splits out data on both progress and attainment for that cohort (as well as by prior attainment, EAL and gender). Agree with Bubbles that's both unusual and laudable as an oversubscription criteria.