Maynards Green Community Primary School

The recovery premium grant is part of the government’s package of funding to support pupils whose education has been impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19).

It is a time-limited grant providing over £300m of additional funding for state-funded schools in the 2021 to 2022 academic year and £1bn across the 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024 academic years.

It is focused on pupil premium eligible pupils and pupils in specialist settings such as special schools, special units and pupil referral units (PRUs). This is because of the additional impact of the pandemic on these students.

However, schools can use it to deliver evidence-based approaches for supporting any pupil based on an assessment of individual need. Please see the attached documents below to see how the grant was spent. 

The Pupil Premium is additional funding given to schools so that they can support particular groups of pupils who are known to be at risk of underachievement and close the gap between them and their peers. The Pupil Premium is allocated to schools for pupils, in Year R to 6, that are known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM) or who have been eligible for FSM in the past six years (Ever6).

Pupil Premium is allocated for children who have been looked after by the local authority (CLA) continuously for more than 6 months. In East Sussex, Pupil Premium for CLA is managed by the Virtual School for Children in Care. A premium is also paid for children whose parents are currently in the Armed Forces.

At Maynards Green, in line with DfE guidance, we spend the Pupil Premium Plus (PP+) on improving the educational and personal outcomes for pupils who are looked after, or have been adopted from care, including (but not limited to) their attainment.  The funding is not ring-fenced and is not for individual children.  Therefore, the DfE do not necessarily expect the school to spend the PP+ funding on every child eligible for PP+ on roll, because the school is best placed to determine how the additional funding can be deployed to have the maximum impact.  In our school, if a child has gaps in their educational attainment, we will target support for them, which may be personalised or through a group intervention.  Alternatively, for some children a whole class or whole school intervention may be appropriate. 

Applying for free school meals

Please note, this is different to Universal Free School Meals which all EYFS and KS1 children (Reception to Year 2) are entitled to – even if your child already receives free school meals as part of the Universal Free School Meals funding, it is still important that you apply for the Pupil Premium Grant as it means extra funding for the school which helps us in supporting the children.

Your child may be able to access the Pupil Premium Grant funding if you get any of the following:

• 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 guaranteed 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 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit – if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

The school census takes place in October so it is important that if you are eligible for funding that you apply as soon as possible so the funding can start. You can also find more information at https://www.gov.uk/apply-free-school-meals

If your home language is not english, we can apply for additional support for your child through East Sussex’s ‘English as an Additional Language Service (EALS) – please contact the school office to discuss how to meet your child’s needs (we may be able to access direct teaching support by an EAL specialist teacher, or support from a Bilingual Support Officer (BSO) who speaks your child’s home language, and they can also help us communicate with you in your home language). https://www.eastsussex.gov.uk/educationandlearning/schools/culturaldiversity/

If you think you may be entitled to free school meals please click the link below which will direct you to the East Sussex County Council checker and application site for free school meals.

Click here