Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium is an allocation of funding given to schools to support specific groups of children who may be vulnerable to possible underachievment.

It is intended to improve the attainment of disadvantaged children, narrowing the gap between them and their classmates or accelerating their progress.

Schools are given a pupil premium for:

• Children who have qualified for free school meals at any point in the past six years. The school receives £1455 per year for each of these children. This support continues for six years even if children are no longer entitled to free school meals (they become Ever FSM).
• Children who have been looked after under local authority care for more than one day. These children are awarded a premium of £2530.
• Children of service families are awarded £335 per year,

Schools can choose how to spend their pupil premium money, as they are best placed to know what would be of most benefit to the children who are eligible e.g.

• Extra one-to-one or small-group support.
• Providing music lessons.
• Funding educational trips and visits.
• Paying for additional help such as speech and language therapy or family therapy.
• Investing in resources that boost children’s learning.

Free school meals and the Pupil Premium

Free school meals are available to some children according to family income.  It’s important to register for entitlement to free school meals, even if your child has a packed lunch – this is so we can receive additional funding (called the Pupil Premium) which we can use to help your child. 

It is also important that you register for Free School Meals even if your child receives Universal Free School Meals (Years R to 2) as the school will then receive an amount of money that can be used to support your child via the Pupil Premium.

Children are entitled to Free School Meals if their parents, carers or guardians receive any of the following:

• Income support
• Income based Jobseekers Allowance
• Income related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part IV of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit, and your annual gross income does not exceed £16,190 as assessed by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs)
• Working Tax Credit run-on (paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit)
• Universal Credit (during the initial roll-out of this benefit)

Please speak to someone in the office, call 0300 300 8306 or click here to visit Central Bedfordshire Council's Free School Meal page if you think your child may qualify for free meals.