Pupil Premium

What is Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium was introduced to help schools further support the children of low income families. Children who are entitled to Free School Meals (FSM) attract additional funding to the School (£1455 per eligible pupil for 2023/24). Each year we encourage eligible parents to apply for Pupil Premium support.  Doing so brings additional funds into school to support your child.  There is no stigma attached to applying for this funding and other families will not be aware that you have done so.

The additional money that comes into school for eligible pupils can be used to fund small group tuition (normally) after school and can also be used to pay for day and residential trips, school clubs as well as fund school uniform, school shoes and a winter coat.

Leicestershire County Council has set up an online portal for families to check their child’s eligibility for Free School Meals. You can still contact Leicestershire County Council for an eligibility check (see email and phone number below).

The Parent Portal can be accessed via the link below.

To apply for pupil premium please click on the ‘Pupil Premium Eligibility’ below.

If you think your child is entitled to pupil premium, email  freeschoolmeals@leics.gov.uk or call 0116 3056588 or 0116 3057093 to apply

Children will qualify for FSM (Free School Meals) and accordingly pupil premium – if you receive any of the following benefits:

  • Income support
  • Income-based jobseekers’ allowance
  • Income-related employment and support allowance
  • Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
  • The guaranteed element of pension credit
  • Child tax credit, provided that you are not also entitled to working tax credit and have an annual gross income of £16,190 or less
  • Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you have stopped qualifying for Working Tax Credit
  • Universal Credit – if you apply on or after the 1st April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

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

Since September 2014, all children in Reception and Years 1 and 2 have qualified for free school meals, regardless of their family income, but only the children who would qualify for free meals under the above income-based criteria will receive the pupil premium.

If your child qualifies for free school meals based on the above criteria, it’s important that you apply for the Pupil Premium and tell the school.

Any child who applies and is entitled from April of this year onward will secure a free school meal throughout the rest of their time at the school i.e. also in KS 2.  This is not something that needs to be reapplied for each year; apply once and it is good for the rest of your child’s time in primary school.  This means that even if the family income level rises above the £7400 threshold, the entitlement remains.

Please look at the eligibility criteria and use the attached form to apply.

Objectives of Pupil Premium Expenditure

We seek, through targeted funding and intervention to eliminate barriers to participation and good progress.  Whilst it is not true of all Pupil Premium entitled pupils at Woodland Grange, nationally, such pupils on average, perform less well and make less progress than non-entitled pupils.  It is our aim to narrow the gap, where one exists, between entitled and non-entitled pupils.

Apart from support with the cost of clubs, day trips, residential trips, uniform and music tuition we also target resources to directly impact upon the academic progress of pupils.  This includes 1:1 reading support and small group work led by a teacher focusing upon key areas of literacy or numeracy.  The majority of our pupils entitled to pupil premium also benefit from one-to-one tutoring with a school staff member (often their class teacher or member of staff member known to them).

It is a requirement set by the Department for Education that schools report:

  • Pupil premium grant allocation for the current academic year
  • Details of how school intends to spend its allocation
  • Details of how school spent its previous academic year’s allocation
  • How it made a difference to the attainment of disadvantaged pupils

Please click below to open a termly report on attainment and progress for Pupil Premium.

Please click on the documents below to see how Woodland Grange uses Pupil Premium funding.