What is The Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium is additional funding given to schools so that they can support particular groups of pupils who are known to be at risk of underachievement and close the attainment gap between them and their peers.

The Pupil Premium is allocated to schools for pupils, in Years R to 11, that are known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM) or who have been eligible for FSM in the past six years (Ever 6). The Pupil Premium for 2023-2024 is £1455 per pupil. It is for schools to decide how the pupil premium funding is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their care.

Pupil Premium is also allocated for children who have been looked after by the local authority (CLA) continuously for more than six months. In East Sussex Pupil Premium for CLA is managed by the Virtual School for Children in Care.

Children who have been adopted from care on or after 30th December 2005 are also eligible for Pupil Premium funding of £2530; this money is given directly to the school to spend.

More information is available on the Department for Education website:

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/premium

Currently, in England, children are eligible to receive free school meals if their parents are in receipt of any of the following:

• Income Support
• Income-based Job Seekers Allowance
• Income related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit, providing they are not also entitled to Working tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190 as assessed by HMRC

Our School Context

At our school approximately 20% of the current school intake is eligible for Pupil Premium Funding which is allocated following an internal needs analysis following government guidelines. This does not necessarily mean that all of those eligible for Pupil Premium will require additional support all of the time. Within our allocation of funds, we also acknowledge that not all socially disadvantaged children are registered or qualify for free school meals. Therefore, the Governors reserve the right to allocate Pupil Premium Funding to support any child or groups of children in the school who have been identified as being socially disadvantaged or vulnerable to under achievement.

At Sedlescombe School we have identified the following as the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at the school:

• Improving children’s early reading skills to support children to close the learning gap
• Improving children’s vocabulary and language skills to support in knowledge acquisition
• To support children’s mental health and well-being