Pupil Premium

What is the Pupil Premium?

Purpose

Pupil premium is funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England. Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.

Pupil eligibility and funding rates 2021 to 2022

This table shows how much pupil premium funding schools and local authorities receive for each eligible child in 2021 to 2022.

Pupil eligibility criteria	Amount of funding for each primary-aged pupil per year	Amount of funding for each secondary-aged pupil per year	Funding is paid to
Pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years	£1345	£955	School
Pupils who have been adopted from care or have left care	£2345	£2345	School
Children who are looked after by the local authority	£2345	£2345	Local authority

Pupil eligibility and funding rates 2022 to 2023

This table shows how much pupil premium funding schools and local authorities will receive for each eligible child in 2022 to 2023.

Pupil eligibility criteria	Amount of funding for each primary-aged pupil per year	Amount of funding for each secondary-aged pupil per year	Funding is paid to
Pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years	£1385	£985	School
Pupils who have been adopted from care or have left care	£2410	£2410	School
Children who are looked after by the local authority	£2410	£2410	Local authority

Service pupil premium (SPP)

Service pupil premium is additional funding for schools, but it is not based on disadvantage. It has been combined into pupil premium payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending.

Schools get £310 in 2021 to 2022 and £320 in 2022 to 2023 for every pupil with a parent who:

• is serving in HM Forces
• has retired on a pension from the Ministry of Defence

This funding is to help with pastoral support.

Use of the pupil premium

Funding paid to schools

School leaders are best placed to assess their pupils’ needs and use the funding to improve attainment, drawing on evidence of effective practice. It is up to school leaders to decide how to spend the pupil premium.

Evidence suggests that pupil premium spending is most effective when schools use a tiered approach, targeting spending across 3 areas, with a particular focus on teaching.

1. Teaching

Investing in high-quality teaching, for example:

• training and professional development for teachers
• recruitment and retention
• support for teachers early in their careers

2. Targeted academic support

Additional support for some pupils focussed on their specific needs, for example:

• one-to-one tuition
• small group tuition
• speech and language therapy

3. Wider approaches

Support for non-academic issues that impact success in school, such as attendance, behaviour and social and emotional challenges. For example:

• school breakfast clubs
• counselling to support emotional health and wellbeing
• help with the cost of educational trips or visits

Read the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) pupil premium guide for information about the tiered approach to spending.

Funding paid to local authorities for looked after children

Virtual School Heads are responsible for managing the funding given to local authorities for the children in their care. They work with schools to ensure the funding is used to help deliver the outcomes identified in the children’s personal education plans.

They can pass all of the funding on to schools or retain some to fund activities that will benefit a group, or all, of the authority’s looked after children.

Further information is available on Virtual School Heads responsibilities for using pupil premium.

Non-eligible pupils

Schools do not have to spend pupil premium so it solely benefits eligible pupils. They can use it wherever they identify the greatest need. For example, they might spend it on pupils who do not get free school meals but:

• have or have had a social worker
• act as a carer

Using pupil premium funding to improve teaching quality is the most effective way to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. By doing so, schools will inevitably benefit non-eligible pupils as well.

How many pupils at Heltwate School are eligible for the Pupil Premium?

Currently 94 children at Heltwate are eligible for the Pupil Premium – 48% of our pupils.

These numbers do change throughout the year. The school includes disadvantaged post 16 students, but they do not appear in this number.

Is there an issue with eligible pupils not applying for FSM?

When a Housing/Council Tax Benefit form is completed, this automatically entitles child(ren) in the family to receive free school meals. The Council inform the Student Services Team and the school of the child’s entitlement to free school meals. We receive this information automatically.

Parents in receipt of Child Tax credit are required to complete a free school meal application form and we encourage all parents that receive the credit to apply to ensure that the school receives the Premium payment. Due to the introduction of universal free school meals some parents of year 1 and 2 children do not always realise that they are eligible and do not apply

How will the impact of the spending of the Pupil Premium be measured?

At Heltwate School, the usual cycle of data collection and the monitoring and tracking of the cohort’s attainment, will be used to inform student progress and enable the early identification of need, support and appropriate intervention.

We take seriously the performance of all our Students, and “We aim to meet each child’s individual need”.  We use the Pupil Premium to improve standards across the school and target the spending power that the Pupil Premium gives.

Further information

For more information, read the:

• guidance for school leaders on using pupil premiumfunding effectively
• Education Endowment Foundation’s pupil premium guide
• the funding allocationswhich show the funding given to each school and at national, local authority and parliamentary constituency level