St Mary’s CE VC First School
Charminster, Dorchester

Pupil Premium

What is Pupil Premium?

The Pupil Premium is additional funding given to schools so that they can support their disadvantaged pupils and close the attainment gap between them and their peers. The funding is to be spent on low-income families, looked after children and those from families in the armed forces. At the moment the Government defines a low income family as one where a child qualifies for free school meals. (FSM)

“Schools, Head teachers and teachers will decide how to use the Pupil Premium allocation, as they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for individual pupils.” Source Department of Education website.

Principles

At St Mary’s CE VC First School we aim to ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all pupils. Equality and Inclusion are at the heart of our school and we aim to ensure that every opportunity meets the needs of all our learners. We ensure that appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups. In making provision we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be disadvantaged. We also recognise that not all pupils who are disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or group of pupils the school as legitimately identified as vulnerable. Pupil Premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals. Limited funding and resources means that not all children receiving free school meals will be in receipt of Pupil Premium interventions at one time.