The use of Pupil Premium funding
The Pupil Premium is an allocation of additional funding provided to schools to support specific groups of children who are vulnerable to possible underachievement. These include pupils who are entitled to free school meals, those looked after by the local authority and children of armed service personnel. The intended effect of this funding is to accelerate progress and raise attainment.
In most cases the Pupil Premium is allocated to schools and is clearly identifiable. It's for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools per free school meals (FSM) pupil, is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility. All schools are required to report on the amount of funding received, how this is being used, and the impact of any work done.
At Clunbury we currently have 8.9% of pupils receiving FSM, and 15.6% of our pupils are currently eligible for free school meals or have been eligible in the past six years (FSM ‘Ever 6’).
We recognise that not all children who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged, and we also recognise that not all children who are disadvantaged have free school meals. We pay careful consideration to how we spend our allocation as we're conscious that due to our low numbers of children eligible for Pupil Premium, these children could be easily identified by their peers or members of the school community, impacting on their confidence and self-esteem.