Since April 2011, the Government has allocated money to schools to support children from lower income families in order to raise the attainment of these children and ensure that they benefit from the same opportunities as all other children and can fully access all that school has to offer. This funding is called the ‘Pupil Premium Grant’ or ‘PPG’.
Is my child eligible?
There are different categories of children that qualify for pupil premium:
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Children who are or have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) over the last six years (Ever 6)
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Looked after children
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Armed forces children (Ever 5)
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Children who have been adopted from care under the Adoption Children Act 2002
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Children who have left care under a Special Guardianship or Residence Order
- 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 Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit with an annual income of less than £16,190 without Working Tax Credit (as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs).
It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils for whom they are responsible. Schools have the freedom to spend the Premium, which is additional to the underlying schools budget, in a way they think will best support the raising of attainment for the most vulnerable pupils, this includes ensuring that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed.
How do we track progress to ensure we are spending the money effectively?
We monitor the progress of our children entitled to pupil premium funding extra-closely to ensure that we are spending our money wisely. We use our own data systems alongside local authority information and national sources of information.
What are we doing this year?
At Bearwood it is believed that ensuring our teachers are appropriately qualified, highly trained, motivated and caring individuals, and that our support staff are provided with the best professional development opportunities, is pivotal to providing every child with the best opportunity to succeed.
How do we check our methods are successful?
We use our own school level data that allows us to keep a close eye on every pupil group and each individual child. We also use local authority and official government data enabling us to track our pupils and endeavour to narrow achievement gaps.
The following documents detail how we have used, or how we intend to use, our PPG funding.
If your child or children are eligible for PPG funding and you require financial support for any school based activities and/or uniform we may be able to assist you. Please complete the form below and return it to the school office.
For the academic year 2020/21, please see the attached:
