What is the Pupil Premium Funding Grant?

The Pupil Premium is additional funding provided to schools by the current Government, who wish to close the educational attainment gap we have nationally between children who are eligible for Free School meals (FSM), and those who are not.  This is one of the current government's key educational policies and is based on findings that show that, as a group, pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in time have consistently lower educational attainment than those who have never been eligible for free school meals. Research has identified that the main barriers facing a child who is eligible for free school meals could be: speech and language delay, social and emotional needs, moderate learning difficulties, challenging behaviour or a lack of opportunities compared to children who are not eligible for free school meals. 

At Priory Lane Community School, we do have children who fall into this target group, yet we also have children who achieve at the highest levels yet are still eligible for free school meals. Furthermore, we also have children who are not eligible for free school meals, who fall into the lower attaining target group. At our school, we ensure the funding supports the progress of all of our children by offering quality staff and resources that benefit everyone, but also to target specific groups where necessary.

Regularly, our teachers assess all pupils’ attainment and progress throughout the school year. The focus of these assessments is on pupils’ progress towards meeting their end of year expectations.  We hold termly pupil progress review meetings and as a result of these meetings, additional support or targeted interventions are implemented or adapted to meet the needs of individual children who receive Pupil Premium funding. 

The Pupil Premium Funding Grant is allocated according to the number of pupils on-roll who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) or have been eligible within the past 6 years, have been adopted and any pupil who has been 'Looked After' (in care) for 6 months or more.  A smaller amount is allocated for children of service families. This is for children from Reception to Year 6.  

It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium funding is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility. However, schools are held accountable for how they have used the additional funding to support pupils.

Please see below for information regarding the plans for spending our current funding allocation and the review of previous grants.