Pupil Premium
All schools receive additional income called the Pupil Premium. This money is allocated by the government to help schools support children from low-income families and children in care.
Pupil Premium is a Government grant given to all schools and academies for those students who:
• are currently eligible for free school meals
• have been eligible for free school meals in the last 6 years
• ‘looked after children’, or those who have been a ‘looked after child’
• have a parent serving in the armed forces
The purpose of the grant is to provide additional support to eligible students in order to reduce inequalities and narrow the gap in attainment between those students and their peers. Schools themselves can determine how they spend the funding, which best meets the needs of their students.
There is a large gap in the attainment of free school meals (FSM)/looked after child (LAC)/post-LAC and non FSM/LAC/post-LAC in terms of the percentage who achieve 5 GCSEs at 9 - 4 including English and maths. Pupil Premium money has been given to help schools close the gap.
It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for individuals.
The Stevenage Education Support Centre has high aspirations for all students and the challenge for our Pupil Premium students is to reach the targets set by the school. All our students in the Centre are capable of reaching their goals and we work hard on ensuring that this is the case for our pupil premium students as well. We ensure their aspirations are the same as those around them.
In a small Centre, with a diverse range of needs, any interventions have to be cost effective with high impact. Due to the nature of the Centre some interventions are specific to the needs of certain students. We work with many external agencies as well our own initiatives, which are Centre wide but are intended to have maximum impact on those who don’t have the opportunity that others in the community are exposed to.