Pupil Premium 

Pupil Premium is additional funding provided to schools to support disadvantaged pupils so that they can benefit from the same opportunities as other children in more advantaged circumstances. 

This is based on research showing that children from low income families perform less well at school than their peers. Often, children who are entitled to pupil premium face challenges such as poor language and communication skills, lack of confidence and issues with attendance and punctuality. The pupil premium is intended to directly benefit the children who are eligible, helping to narrow the gap between them and their classmates.

Is your child eligible?

Schools are given a pupil premium for:

• Children who have qualified for free school meals at any point in the past six years. The school receives £1480 for each of these children.

• Children who are or have been looked after under local authority care for more than one day. These children are awarded a premium of £2570.

• Children from service families who receive a child pension from the Ministry of Defence. They are awarded £340

If your child was previously entitled to free school meals but is no longer, they will still receive pupil premium based on the 'Ever 6' qualification (a pupil who has ever had free school meals in the past six years).

How is it spent?

Schools can choose how to spend their pupil premium money, as they are best placed to identify what would be of most benefit to the children who are eligible.

Here are some of the ways our Pupil Premium support is provided...

• Small group interventions to help children reach their full potential e.g. phonics, times tables and reading (regularly monitored).

• Small groups or 1:1 support by our Learning Mentors to increase pupils' self-esteem, attitudes to learning, sense of well-being and enjoyment of school.

• Extra Teachers and Teaching Assistants to provide additional opportunities for pupils to practise key skills across the curriculum.

• 1:1 support and small group tuition

• Targeted support for Greater Depth students who require more challenge and application of skills, e.g. Organising and setting up their own School Newspaper.

• Monitoring of school attendance by the schools Attendance Officer and Head Teacher, accompanied with incentives for when children do achieve set targets.

• Subsidies for school clubs, extra-curricular activities, school trips and school journey

• Workshops and support for parents and carers in all phases to develop learning skills.

• Free School Meals

• Music tuition

• Support with uniform, PE kit and stationery

There are three categories of children that qualify for pupil premium:

• Children who are eligible for free school meals (FSM)*

• Looked after children

• Armed forces children

*FSM can be given to any child, as long as Parents/carers are claiming some benefits.  School meals are a good way to ensure that your child eats well at lunchtime, and you can save yourself time and money.  Even if you do not want your child to have the meals, claiming helps the school.  The more eligible parents who claim meals, the more funding the school receives for Pupil Premium, which will benefit their learning and social development. 

You are entitled to receive Free School Meals if parents or carers are in receipt of any of the following benefits:

• Income Support

• Income-based jobseekers Allowance

• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance

• Support under Part VI of the immigration and Asylum Act 1999

• The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit

• Child Tax Credit (provided they are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of not more than £16,190, as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs

• Working Tax Credit run-on-paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

• During the initial roll out of the benefit, Universal Credit

For Free School Meals self-online check or more information, please follow this: https://forms.walsall.gov.uk/Application-for-free-school-meals-and-or-Early-Years-Pupil-Premium

Further Government guidance for pupil premium is available here.

Pupil Premium Lead – Miss Tilt

Please see the links below for further details regarding how our school spends the Pupil Premium funding and the impact our initiatives are having:

Please read the information below which gives details of our Pupil Premium Grant and how we allocate the funding: