Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium & Catch up Funding

The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers. Schools receive funding for each pupil registered as eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last 6 years and children who have been in local-authority care for 1 day or more.

What is the Pupil Premium and what is Catch up Premium?

The Pupil Premium is an amount of money that is given to a school from the Government to help disadvantaged children. The Pupil Premium is intended to benefit the children who are eligible, helping to narrow the gap between them and their classmates. This started in 2011 and has continued ever since because research shows that children from low income families perform less well at school than children who are not from low income families. Our school received £24,210 in the 2021/2022 financial year and £26,315 in the 2022/2023 financial year.

The Catch-up Funding has been given to schools by the government to support all children and young people to catch up lost learning time after school closure in 2020 in response to the worldwide pandemic. Our school received £8,930 as Catch up Premium in the 2021/2022 financial year.

You can find out how we plan to spend funding by reading below, including by looking at our strategy statement for the Pupil Premium as we have elected to use this money to support the learning of our disadvantaged children.

Which children receive the Pupil Premium?

We receive the Pupil Premium if a child meets any of the following requirements:

The child qualifies for free-school meals now or has qualified for them in the past 6 years - we receive £1,320 per year for each of these children;
The child has been looked after under local authority care for more than one day - we receive £2,300 per year for each of these children; or,
The child is from a service family who receive a child pension from the Ministry of Defence - we receive £300 per year for each of these children.

I think I might be eligible for free-school meals or Pupil Premium what do I do?

Please contact the school office and we will send you the correct forms to complete. There is no harm in applying for free-school meals even if it ends up that your child is not eligible for them - after all, it is better that all families apply so the school receives the maximum amount of funding possible to help the children.

How does the school spend its Pupil Premium and Catch-up funding?

The Pupil Premium Strategy below lists the exact details for how we spend this money but, to summarise we tend to use the money to help disadvantaged children in the following ways:

We organise for teaching assistants work one-to-one with children who have speech and language difficulties;
We organise for teaching assistants to work with children doing one-to-one phonics and guided reading, as well as with lower-attaining children (including those who did not pass the Phonics Screening Check);
We fund tuition for reading and maths led by teachers in the National Tutoring Programme (NTP)- and this is what we spend our Catch-up Funding on;
We have Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSA’s) who offers tailored support to our families needing it, aiming to support pupils with their attendance and behaviour in school;
We pay for disadvantaged children to attend school trips and after-school clubs so they don't miss out on opportunities other children are receiving.

More detailed information on Pupil Premium spend and Catch Up Plan Funding

The document below provides information on how the Pupil Premium has been spent to support disadvantaged children at Wallace Fields Junior School and its impact on attainment.