The Pupil Premium Grant & Your child
The Pupil Premium Grant & Your Child
Are you missing out on £1300 worth of support for your child?
Dear Parents and Carers,
I am writing to you to inform you of the Pupil Premium Grant to which your child may be entitled.
What is the Pupil Premium?
The Pupil Premium is additional funding for schools in England designed to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers. Access to the grant will enable us to provide specific support for those entitled – assisting the children educationally and helping address their wider needs.
Who is entitled?
There are two different levels of funding currently available to schools, yet only you as parents and / or carers can apply for it.
The standard Pupil Premium grant of £1,300 is given to the school of any child from reception to Y6 who is registered as eligible for free school meals. Although all pupils fin Reception, Y1 and Y2 now receive Free School Meals as part of the government’s universal infant free school meal provision, this DOES NOT MEAN that every child automatically qualifies for the grant. Rather, it is separately ‘means-tested’.
If you are in receipt of one of the following benefits your child could be eligible:
- 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 Jobseeker’s 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 £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
There is also an enhanced pupil premium grant (£2,300) for looked after children (LAC) and previously looked after children (PLAC) – a grant provided by the government for children who are, or have previously been, adopted or in the care of the local authority.
How is the money spent?
The grant can only be spent to benefit those pupils who are entitled to it and must be used to improve the outcomes for pupils in the following areas:
- Academic achievement and progress
- Wider achievement, e.g. in an area that the child is academically more able in
- Attendance
- Inclusion
- Social skills
- Transition
We currently use the Pupil Premium Grant to improve outcomes for pupils in a variety of ways. During the academic year 2017-18 this included (but was not limited to):
- The provision of funded breakfast club places
- The delivery of a specialist social skills programme for children with emotional needs
- 1:1 tuition for phonics for children in need of reading support
- Additional Guided reading sessions to develop comprehension skills
- Specialist maths intervention including the Numbers Counts Programme & First Class interventions
- The funding of educational visits
- Attendance support from our Extended Services Team.
More information about how we spent the grant and the impact of it can be found on the school’s website: www.bostonpioneersacademy.net
What if I don’t want my child ‘labelled’?
We respect the confidentiality and sensitive nature of any information passed on to us. I can assure you that we will comply with our data protection responsibilities as set out in the GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
In order to keep the strictest confidentiality possible, should you wish to find out more about how to apply or want support with the applications process, please contact the school office via phone on 01205 353062, via email joanne.hutson@bwaf.net or face-to-face.
Alternatively, you can apply yourself online via the LA website https://www.lincolnshire.gov.uk/schools-and-education/free-school-meals/
Finally…
As a setting, we want the very best for our pupils so please assist us in ensuring we are able to give these children the best support possible. Five minutes is all it takes!