What is the Pupil Premium Grant?

The Pupil Premium Grant provides additional funding to schools for the specific purpose of improving educational outcomes for disadvantaged children, with the aim of raising their attainment and progress and closing the gap between them and their peers. The school receives the Pupil Premium Grant from the Local Authority.

The grant also provides support for children and young people of service families, referred to as Service Pupil Premium. This has been combined into Pupil Premium payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending. N.B. pupils who receive service pupil premium funding are not necessarily from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

 Why was it introduced?

The Government introduced Pupil Premium as an additional source of funding to main school budgets. The Government believe that it is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and those not in receipt of free school meals (non-FSM), by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. Whilst schools are free to spend the Pupil Premium as they see fit, schools are required to publish online information about how they have used the additional funding.

The Government want to support all schools to use the wealth of evidence of ‘what works’, evaluated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), to use this funding effectively to drive high and rising standards for disadvantaged pupils.

Funding criteria

Pupil premium funding is allocated to schools based on the number of:

• Children who are recorded as eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), or have been recorded as eligible in the past 6 years (referred to as Ever 6 FSM)
• Looked-after children, supported by the local authority
• Children previously looked after by a local authority or other state care in England, including children adopted from state care or. 
• Children who have been cared for by equivalent authorities outside England

For pupils who are looked-after children, funding should be managed by the local authority’s virtual school head in consultation with the child’s school.

Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools do not have to spend pupil premium so that it solely benefits pupils who meet the funding criteria.

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

Pupil Premium at Wolsey House

At Wolsey House Primary School we are committed to ensuring that every child, regardless of background, has the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Our Pupil Premium strategy focuses on high-quality teaching, targeted academic support and wider strategies that remove barriers to learning. Our approach is informed by research from the Education Endowment Foundation and is reviewed annually to ensure the best outcomes for disadvantaged pupils.

At Wolsey House Primary School, we strategically use the Pupil Premium money to ensure that children are given every opportunity to succeed.

Is your child eligible for funding?

If your child may be eligible for Free School Meals, please contact the school office as this may allow the school to access additional funding to support your child. If you receive any of the following:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• Child Tax Credit, as long as you’re not getting Working Tax Credit, and your annual income is £16,190 or less
• the guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Working Tax Credit run-on, paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying
• Universal Credit, if your household income is less than £7,400 a year after tax, not including benefits

Your child could be eligible for free school meals and additional funding for the school. You can apply via the council website Get free school meals | Leicester City Council please do this even if your child is in Key Stage 1 where all children receive universal free school meals.

A link to the DfE website can be found here: Pupil premium - GOV.UK