Pupil Premium
What is Pupil Premium?
Pupil Premium is additional government funding provided to schools to help disadvantaged pupils reach their full potential. It is not paid directly to individual students or families. Instead, the school receives a total amount based on the number of eligible pupils and uses this to support a wide range of strategies and interventions that benefit our school community.
The Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools do not have to spend pupil premium so that it solely benefits pupils who meet the funding criteria." It can be used for whole class interventions which will also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils.
How is the funding used?
At secondary level, most Pupil Premium funding is used to support whole-school initiatives, including staffing, academic support, and pastoral care. This allows us to provide targeted help where it is most needed. We have also set aside a small discretionary fund to support specific projects or needs that align with our REACH values (Respect, Excellence, Ambition, Community, and Honesty). These may include educational, cultural, or sporting activities that help build students’ self-confidence, learning skills, cultural capital, and future employability.
What is the Service Pupil Premium?
The school receives the Service Pupil Premium (SPP) of £310 for each of registered service child. Unlike the Pupil Premium Grant, this grant is mainly for the provision of pastoral support during challenging times and to help mitigate the negative impact on service children of family mobility or parental deployment. Parents must inform the school if their child is eligible for the grant.
Eligibility
The school receives Pupil Premium funding based on the number of students who meet certain criteria, including:
- Eligibility for Free School Meals (FSM) (current or recent)
- Children of service families
- Looked-after or previously looked-after children
- Other vulnerable pupils identified by the school
Requesting Support
Requests for financial assistance (e.g. trips, uniform, music lessons) are considered on a case-by-case basis. Funding is limited and reviewed on a rolling basis. All requests must be approved in advance – we cannot reimburse purchases made without prior agreement. We ask that families do not purchase expensive items with the expectation of reimbursement.
Our aim is to ensure that any support is fair, sustainable, and focused on removing barriers to learning. If you would like to discuss a potential request, please email the finance office at:
finance@thomaskeble.gloucs.sch.uk.