Pupil Premium (PP) funding is money allocated by the government to provide additional support for children from low-income families, children in care, or those who have parents in military service. This is done because, nationally, there is evidence that pupils who fall into these categories achieve less well compared to other students. The additional support is intended by the government to enable schools to close this achievement gap.
Money is received at the start of every financial year based on the number of children in each category, together with the level at which payments are set by the government on an annual basis. Currently, for each eligible child, the school receives £1480 as a premium.
St. Mary’s School takes its responsibilities for ensuring the progress of all pupils very seriously. We adopt an evidence based approach and apply that to the context of our school and the needs of our pupils to help ensure that all pupils make the best progress possible. Our planned expenditure spans each academic year, reflects this.
Outline of the funding received by the school
‘Ever 6 funding’ includes any pupils who have been entitled to free school meals at some point over the last six years, even if they are no longer entitled. Using the Ever 6 formula, for 2024/25, St. Mary’s School has received approximately £35,500.
Our current Pupil Premium Overview 22 25 spans three years to demonstrate our strategy over time. This document demonstrates the impact of the pupil premium on attainment at statutory assessment points too.
The ‘Free School Meals / Pupil Premium Service’ www.fsm.lgfl.net which is a web site where parents can quickly and easily check eligibility for free school meals and, if eligible, also gain welcome additional funding for their child’s school, known as ‘Pupil Premium’. If eligible, you are not obliged to accept the free school meals for your child if you wish to make other arrangements, but we do want to encourage applications as the additional funding gained would still benefit education provision at the school.
What the service does for parents:
After entering essential details into the web site, the online application process links to the Department for Education system for checking eligibility and gives an immediate ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, and will notify the school.
This system is being provided to encourage parents to apply and take advantage of free school meals while at the same time increasing the benefit to schools from Pupil Premium funding, a substantial amount of which does not reach schools because not all parents who are eligible apply for free meals for their child.
