Pupil Premium and Service Premium Funding
Pupil Premium
Pupil Premium is additional funding allocated to a school to help individual students achieve the same as their peers regardless of background. The aim is to close any attainment gap between those that identify as Pupil Premium and their peers.
If you think you might be eligible for free school meals, please see the information below along with the link to apply.
Who qualifies as Pupil Premium?
Those students who received Free School meals, those that previously received Free School meals within the last six years, looked after and services children.
If you think your child may be eligible for free school meals, please see the criteria below as set out by Wiltshire Council.
Free school meals can be awarded only if you receive any of the following:
- Income Support
- Job Seeker's Allowance (income-based)
- Employment and Support Allowance (income-related)
- Support under part six of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The Guarantee element of the State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit - providing you are NOT entitled to Working Tax Credits and your family's annual income (as assessed by HMRC) is not more than £16,190 (as at 6 April 2012)
- Working Tax Credit 'run-on' - the payment you may receive for a further four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credits
- Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
Most applications for free school meals are processed by Wiltshire Council, but a number of schools administer their own applications and will advise you of their process.
This data is correct at April 2024 but is subject to change.
FSM Application (wiltshire.gov.uk)
Mrs Jeffries is our Raising Standards Leader for Pupil Premium. If you have any enquiries, please contact ejeffries@jogschool.org / PP@jogschool.org
Background information
The challenge set by the Department for Education (DfE) is for every educational establishment to ‘diminish the difference’ that exists between our disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged young people. In April 2011, the DfE introduced Pupil Premium funding to help schools support students who may be disadvantaged by their context. This funding contributes towards the strategies we implement at The John of Gaunt School in an attempt to provide equity of support and opportunity for all our students.
Our aspirations for the life-chances of the disadvantaged child
We are determined to provide all of our students with the opportunities to be involved in a broad range of experiences, to access all possible learning activities and resources and be able to achieve the results required to study at university or have a career in a highly skilled occupation. Our aim is to have no attainment or progress gap between Pupil Premium students and their peers.
An overview of the approaches taken by The John of Gaunt School
We plan the allocation of the additional funding in an attempt to maximise the impact on all our disadvantaged students dependent on their needs and desires. We use evidenced-based research from leading educationalists and educational groups such as John Hattie, Sir John Dunford, Ofsted, the Sutton Trust, and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) toolkit to inform our decision-making. We also take into consideration the views of the students and the families that we serve.
Our strategies vary from individual support to whole-school initiatives that may have a positive effect on closing the attainment gap, including those disadvantaged students who are deemed to be more able. We understand that, fundamentally, the most effective action a school can take is to provide high quality teaching and learning. Considerable effort by all staff is placed on ensuring the experience and guidance students receive in the classroom is highly effective and this includes positive discrimination in planning, delivery of lessons and feedback provided to our disadvantaged students who may not be able to access the same amount of support and provision outside of school compared to their peers. Training is provided to increase the awareness of the support these disadvantaged students require and how these pedagogical strategies can be implemented.
The funds allocated for this group are distributed in a way that each child has the equipment and resources required to access the curriculum, to feel and believe they are on an equal standing with their peers, and they are as aspirational as their peers about their future pathways. The school has a Pupil Premium spending plan that clearly lays out how the additional funds are used, the aims of the strategies, the impact made and the next steps the school needs to take to either ensure positive outcomes or enhance the progress made to that point.
Service Pupil Premium Funding (SPP)
The Department for Education (DfE) introduced the Service Pupil Premium (SPP) in April 2011 in recognition of the specific challenges children from service families face and as part of the commitment to delivering the armed forces covenant. It is designed to assist the school in providing additional pastoral support to help lessen the negative impact on service children when their parents or carers have been deployed to a new location. It is not the same as Pupil Premium funding that is provided to raise attainment and accelerate progress of disadvantaged groups.
The John of Gaunt School has a few service children in its cohort. However, our students within this category are supported in a flexible and personalised way where appropriate. This funding is ring-fenced for SSP specific support.
Support can be provided in various forms, including transition work, additional pastoral-team time for additional liaison between The John of Gaunt School and the responsible adults of the service child, a counselling programme, a mentoring programme and any other child-centred pastoral needs.
