Pupil Premium

The Pupil Premium Grant

The Pupil Premium Grant is additional funding provided to schools with the aim of increasing social mobility, reducing the attainment gap between the highest and lowest achieving pupils nationally and enabling more pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to have higher aspirations for their academic future.

Pupil Premium was introduced in April 2011 and allocated to schools so they can work with pupils who have been registered as eligible for free school meals.  In April 2013, this was extended to those who had been registered at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 & FSM’).  Schools also received funding for pupils who have been looked after by the Local Authority for more than six months, or are adopted, for pupils whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces, or whose parent/guardian is in receipt of a pension from the Ministry of Defence.  Current funding per pupil premium child in 2020/21 is £1345 in Years Reception to Year 6 and £302 in Nursery (£2345 for looked after and adopted children and £310 for children of armed forces personnel).

The Federation of Earlswood schools is free to spend the Pupil Premium as we see fit.  However, we are held accountable for how we use the additional funding to support pupils from low-income families.  Our current Pupil Premium strategy is reviewed frequently and is formally reviewed at the end of each academic year.  From September 2012, it has been a requirement to publish online information about how we have used the Premium.  This ensures parents and others are aware of the attainment of pupils covered by the Premium and the extra support that they receive.

How can parents help?

The Federation of Earlswood Schools receives the Pupil Premium grant based on the number of children eligible for free school meals, even if those children do not wish to take up the free school meal.  The more children who are eligible for free school meals, the more funding the Federation receives which can be used to benefit pupils. 

Families in receipt of the following benefits may be eligible for free school meals:

• Income Support
• Income-based Job Seeker's Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• The guarantee element of Pension Credit
• Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• 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 four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• 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).
• They are currently being looked after by a local authority in England or Wales
• They have left care in England or Wales through:

• An adoption order
• A special guardianship order
• A child arrangements order

You can find more information from the government website here.

Complete the registration form here:

• Nursery - Children in the nursery will receive a £20 grocery voucher a month if they are entitled to Free School Meals. 
• Reception - Y6

The Federation of Earlswood Schools Pupil Premium funding is a significant amount of money and needs to be planned carefully in order to ensure best value.  The Pupil Premium Champion and two link governors are committed to ensuring the plans to spend this money have an impact on individual children’s needs, offer value for money and ultimately narrow the attainment gap for our most vulnerable pupils.

What we do

We use a multi-strand approach, identified below.  The approaches we have implemented are all drawn from current educational research, such as the EEF, and their impact is carefully tracked and monitored within school (See Pupil Premium Impact Statement and Intended Spend documents below). 

1. Create a culture

Our staff take responsibility for the learning and progress of all children and know who our disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils are.  There are no excuses for underperformance and the language of ‘learning’ is used right across the Federation and, through meta-cognitive strategies such as ‘Learning Behaviours’, children are developed as learners.

2. Continually strive to improve day-to-day teaching

The continual development of ‘Quality First Teaching’, ‘Feedback for Learning’ and the inclusion of meta-cognitive strategies in lessons have ensured that teaching and learning continues to improve.

3. Improve the effectiveness of interventions and deploy skilled staff

We continually evaluate, through rigorous data tracking, the effectiveness of the interventions we offer.  We train our support staff and teachers to deliver the highest quality interventions that reap the greatest benefits for our children in terms of maximising their progress.  We invest heavily in staff development to ensure that skilled professionals are teaching all children including disadvantaged.  All staff are held accountable for the progress of the pupils they have taught.

4. Increase the opportunities for experiential learning

Improvements to the school environment and the outdoor environment, access to extra-curricular opportunities and the subsidisation of trips and visits all count towards the increased engagement of our disadvantaged pupils.

5. Provide stretch and challenge

It is not always the case that disadvantaged pupils are the lowest attaining.  We have put in place and have a range of tailored interventions and opportunities to provide stretch and challenge for those more able children, such as maths mastery learning.