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Pupil Premium and Free School Meals

Overarching Principles

At Matthew Moss High School, all members of staff and governors accept responsibility for those learners recognised as ‘disadvantaged’ and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs.

Every child who is considered to be ‘disadvantaged’ is valued, respected and entitled to develop to his/her full potential, irrespective of disadvantage.

Documents and Policies

Please click here to view our centralised policies page which includes our Pupil Premium Funding Strategy and Impact Statement.


Background to the Pupil Premium 

Introduced in April 2011, the Pupil Premium is a Government initiative that provides additional funding aimed at learners from deprived backgrounds. Research shows that learners from deprived backgrounds underachieve compared to their non‐deprived peers. The Pupil Premium is provided in order to support these learners in reaching their potential by accelerating their progress.

The Government has used learners entitled to Free School Meals and those who are looked after, as an indicator for deprivation. They have given a fixed amount of money to schools per learner, based on the number of learners registered for Free School Meals and who are looked after by the local authority. A premium has also been introduced for children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces or those who have been adopted. This service premium is designed to address the emotional and social well-being of these learners.

Overall Objectives:

Our school will ensure that the Pupil Premium funding reaches the groups of learners for whom it was intended and that it makes a significant impact on their education and lives.

The Pupil Premium will be used to provide additional educational support to improve the progress and raise the achievement for these learners.

The funding will be used to narrow and close the gap between the achievement of these learners and their peers.

The school will use the additional funding to address any underlying inequalities between children eligible for Pupil Premium and others.

How we will ensure effective use of the Pupil Premium 

The Pupil Premium will be clearly identifiable within the budget.

The Headteacher and Assistant Heads in charge of Pupil Premium in consultation with the governors and staff, will decide how the Pupil Premium is spent for the benefit of the entitled learners. Funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority groups or individuals.

In making provision for socially disadvantaged learners, we recognise that not all learners who receive Free School Meals will be socially disadvantaged or underachieving. We also recognise that not all learners who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We therefore reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any groups of learners the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

The school will assess what additional provision should be made for the individual learners.

The school will be accountable for how it has used the additional funding to support the achievement of those learners covered by the Pupil Premium.

The Headteacher will report to the governing body and parents on how effective the intervention has been in achieving its aims, including publishing online information about how the Premium has been used.

We will track the impact of the strategies put into place through the funding to ensure that we can show the value that has been added to the education of the entitled children.

We will monitor evaluate and review the success of the impact of the pupil premium funding.

Provision

We will regularly seek to further develop strategies and interventions which can improve the progress and attainment of these learners. Examples of the range of provision we may put in place include:

  • Providing small group or 1:1 support with an experienced member of staff to focus on overcoming barriers to learning;
  • Facilitating learners’ access to education and the curriculum through extended learning e.g. opportunities to learn outside the classroom; accessing learning from home;
  • Additional teaching and learning opportunities provided through learning mentors, behaviour coaches, trained TAs or external agencies.

Reporting outcomes

It will be the responsibility of the Headteacher to produce a report for the Governing Body that will include:

  • The progress made towards closing the gap, by year group, for disadvantaged learners and specific groups of learners;
  • An outline of the provision made during the term since the last report;
  • An evaluation of the cost effectiveness, in terms of the progress made by the learners receiving a particular provision, when compared with other forms of support.

The governors will ensure that there is an annual statement to parents outlining how the Pupil Premium funding has been used to address the issue of closing the gap for socially disadvantaged learners.

Appeal 

Any appeals against this policy will be through the governor’s complaints procedure.


Free School Meals

You can get free school meals if you are responsible for a child (for example, you receive Child Benefit for them) who is at school – including nursery children who attend full days at a school nursery and sixth form students – as long as you get one of these qualifying incomes:

  • Income Support
  • Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
  • Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
  • Universal Credit (provided your household income is less than £7,400 a year after tax and not including any benefits you get)
  • Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
  • Child Tax Credit (provided you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
  • Working Tax Credit run-on paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

If your child is eligible for free school meals, they’ll remain eligible until they finish the phase of schooling (primary or secondary) they’re in on 31 March 2022.

Please use the Online Free school Meal Checker to see if you are eligible. You will get an immediate response as to whether you are eligible or not, and will not be required to fill out any further paperwork.

FREE SCHOOL MEAL ELIGIBILITY CHECKER