What is the pupil premium?

Introduced in 2011, the pupil premium is a sum of money given to schools each year by the Government to;

raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the attainment gap with their peers
support children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces

The pupil premium is intended to directly benefit the children who are eligible, helping to narrow the gap between them and their classmates.

Is your child eligible?

Free School meals and Ever 6;

The pupil premium for 2016 to 2017 will include pupils recorded in the January 2016 school census who are known to have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) in any of the previous 6 years (e.g. since summer 2010), as well as those first known to be eligible at January 2016.

Children in care /adopted from care or who have left care;

The pupil premium for 2016 to 2017 will include pupils recorded in the January 2016 school census and alternative provision census who were looked after by an English or Welsh local authority immediately before being adopted, or who left local authority care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order).

Ever 5 service child

Children who have a parent/carer in the armed services or have been within the last five years or have a parent/carer currently in receipt of a service pension.

How to claim your child’s pupil premium

Your child may be eligible for free school meals – and accordingly pupil premium – if you receive any of the following benefits:

Income support
Income-based jobseekers’ allowance
Income-related employment and support allowance
Support under Part IV of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
The guaranteed element of state pension credit
Child tax credit, provided that you are not also entitled to working tax credit and have an annual gross income of £16,190 or less
Universal credit

If you are unsure please contact your child’s Pastoral Assistant or Sue Foster at the College who will be able to tell you what you need to do to register your child as eligible.

How is it spent?

Schools can choose how to spend their pupil premium money, as they are best placed to identify what would be of most benefit to the children who are eligible.

Some examples of how Wyvern spends their pupil premium fund include:

Extra one-to-one or small-group support for children within the classroom.

Employing extra Teaching Assistants to work with classes.

Running catch-up sessions after school, for example for children who need extra help with numeracy or literacy.
Providing extra tuition and Saturday revision classes for students who receive the pupil premium, for example in preparation for GCSE’s.
Providing music lessons for children whose families would be unable to pay for them and currently receive free school meals.
Help towards funding of educational trips and visits. (This does not include residential enrichment trips).
Employing a Family Support Worker to engage with families within the community and sign-post to other agencies who can offer support.
Investing in resources that boost children’s learning, such as stationery and revision guides
Specific pupil premium student enrichment days and activities.

Often, all of the children in a class will reap some benefit from how the school spends its pupil premium: for example, if the money is used to fund an additional Teaching Assistant who works across the whole class, rather than providing one-to-one support. But research shows that the fund does help to narrow the gap between disadvantaged children and their peers, particularly in English and Maths.

Can you influence how the pupil premium is used?

There is no obligation for your school to consult you about how they use the money they claim for your child, although at Wyvern we have parent governors who oversee how the money is spent. However, schools do have to show that they are using their pupil premium fund appropriately. This is measured through Ofsted inspections and annual performance tables showing the progress made by children who are eligible for pupil premium.

Please click on the links below to view a more detailed breakdown of our pupil premium spending.

The Assistant Headteacher in charge of the College’s pupil premium strategy reviews this annually and reports directly to governors, the Headteacher and other members of the College’s senior leadership team.