Pupil Premium is funding allocated to schools by the government. It is allocated to children who are known to be eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), children whose parents serve in the armed forces and children who have been looked after continuously for more than 6 months (LAC). This includes pupil’s eligible for FSM at any point in the last six years (known as the Ever 6 FSM measure) as well as children who have been adopted or are under a special guardianship order. The purpose of the Pupil Premium is to help support those students from low income families to ensure that they make progress at an equal rate to their peers.
You child may be eligible for FSM if you are in receipt of one of the following:
- 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 you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit
Please contact the Principal or SENDco at the academy for more information.
It is for us to decide how the Premium is spent, as we are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for individual pupils at school, but it is used to ensure these children are supported in making good academic progress every school year.
Decisions on how money should be spent to best meet the needs of our children are not always easy to make. Initially pupil progress meetings highlight the progress of children and whether academic support would be an advantage and at what level. Special Educational Needs (SEN) planning and review meetings also provide valuable information, as do parents of course. We seek the permission of parents prior to interventions beginning for their children. Staff are acutely aware of which children in their class are supported by Pupil Premium and their names are identified on our assessment tracker. This allows for more careful monitoring of progress and may further highlight the needs of the children.
The staff and governors at Worlaby Academy are continually focussing on improving the life chances of all our pupils. For this to happen, pupils need to be given every opportunity to ‘be the best they can be’, no matter of their family’s financial, social or emotional background. Working together in partnership with the parents and pupils, and setting high expectations and aspirations, Worlaby Academy can support them in attaining the best results in KS2, helping them into their secondary education.