What is the Pupil Premium?
The Pupil Premium provides additional funding on top of the main funding a school receives. It is targeted at students from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as students from less deprived families. Since September 2014 the premium has been worth £935 and goes to students who at any point in the past seven years have been in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM); £2,300 goes to any student who has been continuously looked after for the previous six months or who has been adopted from care under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or who has left care under a Special Guardianship or Residence Order; finally £300 goes to students whose parent(s) are currently serving in the armed forces or are in receipt of a pension from the MoD.
Accountability
The government believes that headteachers and school leaders should decide how to use the Pupil Premium. They are held accountable for the decisions they make through:
- The performance tables which show the performance of eligible pupils compared with their peers.
- The Ofsted inspection framework, under which inspectors focus on the attainment of pupil groups, and in particular those who attract the Pupil Premium.
- The reports for parents that schools have to publish online.
Biddenham provides a wide variety of support for our Pupil Premium students ranging from smaller class sizes, to the investment in web-based support programmes. It is our hope that through the appropriate use and allocation of timely interventions we will allow all students to reach their potential and that any barriers to learning are broken down.
