What is the Pupil Premium?
The Government considers the Pupil Premium to be a key element of their education policy. Introduced in April 2011, the Pupil Premium provides additional funding to schools to target specific groups of children who are vulnerable to underachievement. These include pupils from low income families; children in care and the children of armed service personnel.
What are the aims of the Pupil Premium?
The purpose of the Pupil Premium is to raise the achievement and aspirations of disadvantaged groups of children.
The link between free school meal eligibility and underachievement is strong. The Pupil Premium seeks to tackle this inequality in educational outcomes. The Premium is intended to help schools to provide targeted support to improve the life chances of children from lower income families and young people who face additional challenges in their lives so that they can reach their full potential.
How is the Pupil Premium used at Oliver Tomkins School?
The Government has given schools discretion in how to best use the funding to meet the needs of their children.
Much of the expenditure relates to the salaries of specific staff and services who have been employed to support, where needed, the children in the groups above. Money is also spent on extra resources and to fund specific activities which we believe make a difference. We have tried to use the money as effectively as we can but with the specific objectives of enabling pupils’ to reach their full potential, to maximise academic achievement and to overcome any social or welfare issues which might act as a barrier to learning.