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 2021, the premium will be worth:
- £1,345 for students who at any point in the past 6 years have been in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM)
- £2,345 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
- £310 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 12% of students at Sacred Heart are eligible for the Pupil Premium
Is there an issue with eligible pupils not applying for FSM?
Yes. 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.. If you are eligible to any of the following benefits than please contact the school office or contact the Free School Meal department at Gateshead Council on 0191 433 3729 or benefitsfsm@gateshead.gov.uk
Am I eligible to apply for FSM?
Your child will qualify for free school meals if you meet the following criteria:
- you or your partner receive child benefit (for the child you are applying for), and
- the child is in full time education, under 19 years of age, and
- the child attends a local authority school or sixth form (but not a sixth form college). If your child attends nursery, attendance must be full-time and your child must attend before and after lunch in a nursery run by Gateshead Council. This still applies even if your child is presently unable to attend school because of the COVID-19 restrictions on schools being open.
You and your partner must be in receipt of one of the following benefits:
- Income Support
- Income Based Job Seekers Allowance (JSA – IB)
- Guarantee Pension Credit
- Income Related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA Income Related)
- Child Tax Credit – but not Working Tax Credit – and your income for Tax Credit purposes must be less than £16,190.00 (details are shown on your Tax Credit award notice)
- Working Tax Credit Run-on
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Universal Credit and your net earned family income is less than £7,400.
Receipt of one of the above benefits will be checked with the relevant government departments (HMRC, DWP and Home Office) and this may be done via the Eligibility Checking Service. By signing the declaration on the application form, you are giving your consent for us to check your eligibility through this service.
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.
COVID Catch Up Fund
In the 20-21 academic year, the school was provided with an additional COVID catch up fund. This was supplemented with some additional funding in the 21-22 academic year. The purpose of this was to address any lost learning / gaps in knowledge as a result of the COVID pandemic. Sacred Heart’s COVID catch up strategy document can be found below:
Sacred Heart recognises the impact that P.E has on the well-being and health of our children. Our school believes that a varied and interesting PE curriculum can really help our children to perform and engaging more in both PE and it helps with their academic achievement in other subjects around our school.
The Primary School Sport’s Funding enables us to continue and explore new sport to help inspire our children into becoming the Olympians and athletes of tomorrow. We hire-in experienced and talented sports professionals who help train up and teach our staff into delivering the best P.E lessons we can.
The Department for Education has an excellent page about the Sports funding, which can be found here.
What is the Primary Sports Premium?
The government has increased its funding into schools around the entire country be a total of £150 million per year to provide substantial benefit to primary school sport. The funding is managed jointly by the Department for Education and Healthy and Culture. The money will go directly to schools to allow them to improve the well-being and sports curriculum throughout their school.
As at September 2017, the government announced the initiative to double the amount of money that schools will receive for the academic year. Since 2017-18, schools have received £16,000 plus £10 per pupil on roll. The impact is tracked throughout the year by our P.E coordinator and the full impact and expenditure of our own grant is published yearly.
Purpose of the Funding
Schools have to decide on what they wish to spend their school sports grant on, this is covered by guidelines published by the DfE. The current guidelines state that schools can spend money on:
- Hiring qualified sports coaches to help inspire and improve our own school’s sport teaching capabilities.
- Funding for professional development opportunities throughout the year.
- Increasing participation in external competitions and events. I.e. Dance Festivals, rugby tournaments etc.
- Providing cover teachers and supervisors when teachers attend CPD or events with our children.
- Purchase of high-quality P.E equipment to help bolster the teaching efforts of our P.E Staff.
Impact of the Funding
At Sacred Heart, we pride ourselves on being transparent about our expenditure and impact. Please see the links below to read about the effect our sports premium has on our school:
Bishop Wilkinson Catholic Education Trust