Sacred Heart Catholic Primary School

The Pupil Premium provides additional funding on top of the main funding a school receives. It is targeted at students from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as students from less deprived families. From September 2019, the premium will be worth £1,320 for students who at any point in the past 6 years have been in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM); £2,300 for any student who has been continuously looked after for the past six months or who has been adopted from care under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or who has left care under a Special Guardianship or Residence Order; finally £300 for students whose parent/parents are currently serving in the armed forces or are in receipt of a pension from the MoD

How the Pupil Premium is spent is monitored closely with all schools accountable for the impact of the money spent. At Sacred Heart we pride ourselves on utilising the Pupil Premium to support our students with a specific focus on Literacy, Transition (at all key stages) Engagement, and Attendance, maximising the life opportunities for all students.

Why is there a pupil premium?
Students who have been eligible for Free School Meals at any point in their school career have consistently lower educational attainment than those who have never been eligible. In 2009-10 GCSE statistics showed that around a third of students who have been on Free School Meals in the previous six years achieved five or more A*- C grades, compared to more than two thirds of their fellow students.

How many pupils at Sacred Heart are eligible for the Pupil Premium?
Currently 14.52% of students at Sacred Heart are eligible for the Pupil Premium

Is there an issue with eligible pupils not applying for FSM?
There is an issue with parents not claiming Free School Meals and therefore the Pupil Premium entitlement is not available. It is very important that parents let us know if they are in receipt of any of the following types of benefits, as we will not be automatically informed by the local government: Income Support (IS); Income Based Jobseekers Allowance; An income-related employment and support allowance; Support under part IV of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; Child Tax Credit (provided not entitled to Working Tax Credit) and have an annual income not exceeding £16,190 or Guarantee element of State Pension Credit.

Since September 2014, all pupils in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 are eligible for Free School Meals, however, it is still vital that parents inform us about their eligibility for these benefits, as it means the school will receive additional funding to support their children.

How will the impact of the spending of the Pupil Premium be measured?
To monitor progress on attainment, new measures will be included in the performance tables that will capture the achievement of students covered by the Pupil Premium. At Sacred Heart, the usual cycle of data collection and the monitoring and tracking of the cohort’s attainment, will be used to inform student progress and enable the early identification of need, support and appropriate intervention.

At Sacred Heart, we recognise the contribution of PE to the health and well-being of the children. We believe that an innovative, varied PE curriculum and extra-curricular opportunities have a positive influence on the concentration, attitude and academic achievement of all our children.

Our Primary School Sport’s Funding will enable us to continue and extend our provision through employing additional sports professionals, entering into more competitive sports competitions and training our staff to deliver in-house quality PE sessions.

Primary School’s Sports Funding
Click here for the Department of Education link to the Primary School’s Sports Funding page.

What is the Sports Premium?
The government is providing funding of £150 million per annum to provide new and substantial primary school sport funding. The funding is being jointly provided by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport, and will see money going directly to primary school headteachers to spend on improving the quality of sport and PE for all their children.

or the academic year of 2017-2018, the government have announced the sports premium fund will double, and schools will receive £16,000 and an additional payment of £10 per pupil. The impact of this funding will be shown in the sports premium document for this academic year in July 2018. The money can only be spent on sport and PE provision in schools.

Purpose of the funding
Schools will have to spend the sport funding on improving their provision of PE and sport, but they will have the freedom to choose how they do this.

Possible uses of the funding include:

Hiring specialist PE teachers or qualified sports coaches to work alongside primary teachers when teaching PE
Paying for professional development opportunities in PE/sport
Providing cover to release primary teachers for professional development in PE/sport
Running sport competitions, or increasing participation in the school games
Buying quality assured professional development modules or material for PE/sport
Providing places for pupils on after school sport clubs

Please click on the links below to see more information and a break down of how the school intends to utilise the Primary School’s Sports Fund.

St Thomas More Partnership of Schools

Pupil & Sports Premium