Pupil Premium
What is Pupil Premium?
The pupil premium is additional funding given to schools each year to support pupils who are disadvantaged.
This is based on research showing that children from low income families perform less well at school than their peers. Often, children who are entitled to pupil premium face challenges such as poor language and communication skills, lack of confidence and issues with attendance and punctuality. The pupil premium is intended to directly benefit the children who are eligible, helping to narrow the gap between them and their classmates.
College Hall receives pupil premium funding for children in care (CiC) and for every pupil who have qualified for free school meals at any point in the past six years.
Who is eligible for free school meals?
We update our records annually to make sure we have an accurate account of the school population. However if your circumstances change please inform the school reception.
Free school meals are available to pupils in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of, one or more of the following benefits:
- 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)
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guarantee element of Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
In addition, the following pupils will be protected against losing their free school meals as follows:
- From 1 April 2018, all existing free school meals claimants will continue to receive free school meals whilst Universal Credit is rolled out. This will apply even if their earnings rise above the new threshold during that time.
- In addition, any child gaining eligibility for free school meals after 1 April 2018 will be protected against losing free school meals during the Universal Credit rollout period.
- Once Universal Credit is fully rolled out, any existing claimants that no longer meet the eligibility criteria at that point (because they are earning above the threshold or are no longer a recipient of Universal Credit) will continue to receive free school meals until the end of their current phase of education (i.e. primary or secondary).
A pupil is only eligible to receive a free school meal when a claim for the meal has been made on their behalf, and their eligibility has been verified by the school where they are enrolled.
If you are unsure of whether or not you are entitled to free school meals the school can check for you using the confidential Eligibility Checking Service. If you would like us to check for you, please provide the following information:
- Claimant (i.e. parent) NI number or
- NASS reference for asylum seekers
- Claimant (i.e. parent) date of birth
- Claimant (i.e. parent) legal surname
In line with our vision and values College Hall seeks to ensure the effectiveness of its use of the Pupil Premium. As a result, we have based our spending priorities on high quality research such as The Sutton Trust EEF toolkit, which is an accessible summary of educational research which provides guidance for teachers and schools on how to use their resources to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.
We are an inclusive school and at times, the provision on offer may benefit a wider group of students; the support that is offered is fully integrated into the school’s systems and may be accessed by all of our pupils.
Our Pupil Premium Statement for 2023-24 is here