Can school provide clubs/extra help Just for certain children ?

Spendless

This is copied and pasted from my daughter's school website about what they spend the money on.

Pupil Premium is an extra grant given to schools to help support work with children from low income families and children who are in Local Authority care (Looked After Children). It is up to the school to decide how to use this grant, but we will be held accountable, having to show how this money is spent and how it has made a difference for the children.

In 2011/12 this grant amounted to £10,160 and this year 2012/13, we expect it to be £31,400.

At our school, in both years, we used these funds to buy in extra support. Each year group receives two afternoons of additional support time to run intervention groups. In addition, this year, we have increased support, ensuring that each class has a Learning Support Assistant (LSA) every morning. Where we feel it is appropriate, some children are given additional one to one support.

Assessments completed at the end of the academic year 2011/2012 show that the Looked after Children in our school made above average progress in Maths and Literacy, when taken as a whole, with particular improvements noted in the pace of progress in writing.

Assessments of progress of those children entitled to Free School Meals have shown that the group have made above average progress in literacy and there have been improvements made in the pace of learning in maths. Where children have been targeted for one to one support, they show good progress.

securityguy

Valli wrote: »

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Profiling by market research companies (all that A, B, C1, C2, and C3 stuff) is finer than this - and they're only interested in selling to people and gathering opinion.
Surely the education of children and targeting appropriate support is more important!

A better indicator would be the level to which parents of children were educated

It might, but it would be highly unlikely to get accurate compliance, especially amongst the very demographics you're trying to help. A lot of people are going to suspect, with some justification, that parents' education would end up being used for the purposes of setting, careers guidance and a range of other improper uses.

It's also a pretty blunt instrument, as the lowest level you'd be able to record would be "no education past the age of 16", and that covers both people living in desperate poverty and Lord Sugar.

maman

It seems very clumsy of the school to draw attention to the fsm pupils in this way. I suspect that the majority of schools will use the money to buy in help with learning for these pupils (or others that have learning needs but no fsm). If this means perhaps a TA in the classroom ALL the children benefit. A bit like in the school spendless describes.

I wonder how detailed the accountability has to be? The problem with using this crude measure is that the school still has PP funding for the gifted child who just happens to qualify for fsm.

peachyprice

maman wrote: »

The problem with using this crude measure is that the school still has PP funding for the gifted child who just happens to qualify for fsm.

Perhaps that gifted child on fsm doesn't have access to many books at home or to a musical instrument or art supplies. just because a child is gifted doesn't mean he/she doesn't need extra money spent on him/her to reach their full potential, infact they're probably more likely to need extra financial input to succeed.

maman

peachyprice wrote: »

Perhaps that gifted child on fsm doesn't have access to many books at home or to a musical instrument or art supplies. just because a child is gifted doesn't mean he/she doesn't need extra money spent on him/her to reach their full potential, infact they're probably more likely to need extra financial input to succeed.

I totally agree with you. It's just that the fsm funding is generally used to support children who find learning difficult. I wonder how individual the accountability will be and whether any 'gifted' children will miss out?

Shassa

The Pupil Premium Grant is paid to schools based on the number of students on FSM or who has been on FSM in the last 6 years (ever6), there is also an element for 'Looked After children' and 'Service Children'. I believe this also includes those within the last 3 years (ever3).

The funding is there to help bridge the gap between FSM children and non-FSM children. It can be used to pay towards extra-curricular trips, equipment, extra tuition, music tuition, after school clubs or even football boots.

I personally would not allow Skiing Trips for example, as this is not part of the curriculum and an extra which many working parents can't afford.

If in doubt about any aspect of the Pupil Premium, I would recommend emailing your child's school as they may have certain guidelines regarding what they can pay for or check the schools website.

Spendless

This is copied and pasted from my son's Secondary school about the Pupil premium and what it is spent on.

Pupil premium is a grant given to the school by the Department for Education to provide extra support for those children who receive free school meals, along with children in care and also those who have parents in the armed forces. In 2011-12 the grant was £488 per pupil. In 2012-13 it is £600 per pupil. This grant is used to help provide the following support activities:

A Year 6 summer school
An accelerated reading scheme; supported reading scheme and an on-line reading programme
Smaller group sizes in English and mathematics
The homework club
A mentoring programme
One-to-one tuition
Small group tuition
Focused careers guidance in Year 10 and 11
Free music tuition and help with the costs of residential trips
In 2011 the GCSE results (or equivalent qualifications) for those pupils who were eligible for pupil premium are shown below:

100% achieved 5+A*-C
67% achieved 5+A*-C including English and mathematics
78% achieved expected progress in English
44% achieved expected progress in mathematics
In 2012 the GCSE results (or equivalent qualifications) for those pupils who were eligible for pupil premium are shown below:

95% achieved 5+A*-C
47% achieved 5+A*-C including English and mathematics
79% achieved expected progress in English
63% achieved expected progress in mathematics

Now I know that in this case they aren't spending the money just on the pupils who are on FSM as the yr 6 summer school mentioned my son went on and he isn't on FSM (or ever has been).

OP_ Why don't you look on your child's school website they may also have listed how they spend the funds.

peachyprice

maman wrote: »

I totally agree with you. It's just that the fsm funding is generally used to support children who find learning difficult. I wonder how individual the accountability will be and whether any 'gifted' children will miss out?

I have to say, in all the schools my children have been to the fsm gifted children have been just as supported as the not so gifted, instruments have been bought, transport has been paid for to competitions, lessons from outside tutors have been subsidised, and that's just the children that I know of, I'm sure that's just the tip of the iceberg.

[Deleted User]

peachyprice wrote: »

Yes, they get extra finding for pupils on school meals, the money is meant to be spent on them working on the theory that if they are from low income families they are unlikely to have the same access to educational facilities at home than children whose parents work.

But that is only a theory though, my two currently receive free school meals, but that is due to a change in our family circumstances, not because they don't receive good education from school or home.

Shassa

Just a thought... some families are unable to claim FSM due to receiving WTC. If the WTC aren't really too much, could they forfeit it and claim FSM instead? For example, if you have 3 children on school meals and pay £11 per week each, that's £33 per week! It would also mean more funding for the school and open the doors for pupil premium funding for the children?