What Is Pupil Premium?
Pupil Premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers. This funding is aimed at addressing the current underlying inequalities that exist between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their more affluent peers.
This funding is allocated to schools on the basis of the number of pupils who have been eligible for Free School Meals at any point over the last six years; children who have been “looked after” for more than six months, children who have left local authority care or children of service personnel.
Schools are able to use the Pupil Premium as we see fit, based on the knowledge of our pupils’ needs.
Historically, many parents have often seen a stigma attached to their child being seen to have Free School Meals. Many parents may remember their own experiences at school when the children on Free School Meals may have to go collect a special token for their lunch, or maybe they saw children having to join a separate line to queue for the dinner. At Howard Park no children are aware as to which children receive Free School Meals. Nobody collects a token, everyone queues for their dinner together in exactly the same way.
If your child may be eligible for Free School Meals, you should apply even if you do not intend to take the meals as this will enable the school to obtain funding to benefit your child and others in the school. Please scroll down to the bottom of this page to find out if who is eligible to apply for Free School Meals.
How is Support Provided
At Howard Park Community School, we continued to use the additional funding to support a variety of strategies to best meet the needs of each individual child for whom the grant funding was allocated, including:
• high quality, inclusive teaching.
• pupils taught in groups with other pupils who are working at a similar level.
• focused support from skilled teaching assistants, both in class and in small groups.
• individual tuition from a qualified tutor.
• intervention strategy support from teaching assistants.
• personalised support (including pastoral support) for individual pupils, to meet their needs.
• supporting parents to fund clubs and trips.
Monitoring The Impact Of Our Pupil Premium Spending.
Mrs Mollett(Deputy Head) has overall responsibility for the attainment and progress of Pupil Premium children, although ensuring the progress of eligible pupils and evidencing this is a whole-school priority.
Children’s progress and attainment is tracked and monitored carefully to ensure they achieve their full potential. Regular monitoring and evaluation is key to ensuring effectiveness of expenditure.
Through our termly Standards & Effectiveness Committee and full Governing Body meetings we report clearly on data for our Pupil Premium children. Our Pupil Premium link Governor also meets with the PP lead/Headteacher.
For more detail on our planned use of Pupil Premium this academic year please see our report below.
Applying For Free School Meals/Pupil Premium Funding
Your child may be able to get free school meals if you get any of the following:
- attend full time at a local authority school or sixth form
- are under 19 years of age
and their parents or carers receive one or more of the following:
- Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
- Income support
- Income Based Job Seekers Allowance
- Income Related Employment and Support Allowance
- Child Tax Credit, but are not entitled to a Working Tax Credit and your annual income (as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) is less than £16,190
- Support under Part V1 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
If your child is eligible for free school meals, they’ll remain eligible until they finish the phase of schooling (primary or secondary) they’re in on 31 March 2023.
All pupils In Reception and KS1 receive Universal Free School Meals. If you receive any of the above and your child is in Reception or KS1 do still apply as there are wider benefits to both your child and school.