Pupil Premium
Pupil Premium and Free School Meals
The pupil premium was introduced in April 2011 and is additional funding that the government gives to schools for each pupil on roll where they are deemed to be disadvantaged. Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.
The government believes that this grant is the best way to address underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals and their peers. The money must be spent on that pupil to support their education, but it is up to the school to determine how it is spent.
The pupil premium grant is allocated to schools for children of statutory school age
- from low income families who are known to be eligible for free school meals
- who have been looked after continually for more than six months
- whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces
It is very important that all parents who meet the criteria should make an application for FSM even if they do not intend to take up the meals, so that school can access the funding. Please email info@villageprimary.org to find out the eligibility criteria.
Further information on pupil premium funding can be found here
Free School Meals Information
The level of pupil premium funding will vary year on year according to the number of children eligible for free school meals. The funding received by the school annually is used in a variety of ways in order to improve pupil attainment and to help overcome barriers to learning. We have utilised strategies from ‘Narrowing the gap’ and the Sutton Trust EEF toolkit, that have been researched and analysed extensively, to inform us of the best ways to use this money.
Overarching Pupil Premium Strategies at Cramlington Village Primary School
At CVPS we aim to use the pupil premium allocation to support attainment and maximise the children’s potential in terms of learning, raised expectations, experiences and readiness for the challenges ahead. At the heart of this and integral to our approach is an expectation of high quality, innovative teaching every day.
Funding aims to maximise staffing capacity so that the most effective teachers work with those who need it the most and this begins at the earliest stages, with early identification of barriers to learning the children face. Teachers are held accountable for outcomes and there is a culture of reflective practice and open dialogue and monitoring to assist the success and impact of actions. Challenging, aspirational targets and the achievement of these are seen as everyone’s responsibility.
There are 5 Key Principles underlying our strategy.
- An excellent education and the highest expectations for all, regardless of background or barriers to learning.
- The Pupil Premium should support improved attainment, raised expectations and readiness for life and learning.
- High quality teaching and learning should be prioritised over interventions. An intervention culture can lead to disadvantaged pupils being seen as ‘someone elses responsibility’.
- The Pupil Premium funding should be used to ensure disadvantaged pupils access excellent teaching and learning everyday.
- The Pupil Premium should address the needs of pupils as early as possible. It should focus on gaps in learning. End of Key Stage outcomes are a by-product of this approach.
