Pupil Premium
What is the Pupil Premium Grant?
The Department for Education provides additional funding to schools for pupils who are eligible for Free School Meals; pupils who are cared for, or previously cared for, and pupils with parents in the Armed Forces.
- The Pupil Premium Grant was increased in April 2025 from £1,480 to £1,515 for each pupil eligible for free school meals or who has claimed free school meals in the last 6 years.
- Pupil Premium Plus funding for pupils who are ‘cared for’ or were ‘previously cared for’ was increased in April 2024 from £2,570 to £2,630.
- The new service premium rate was increased in April 2024 from £340 to £350. (Service pupil premium is additional funding for schools, but it is not based on disadvantage. It has been combined into pupil premium payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending.)
The funding is intended to ‘diminish the difference’ between the attainment of pupils in receipt of the Pupil Premium funding and those who are not. The DfE recommends that the Pupil Premium Plus funding is used to address pupils’ social and emotional needs as well as raising their attainment.
Mrs Rebecca Gregory is our Pupil Premium Champion and Mrs Rosie Hemmings is the governor with responsibility for monitoring the use of the Pupil Premium Grant.
If you think your child might be eligible for free school meals, please contact the school office for further information.
How much Pupil Premium funding is allocated for 2025/2026?
Bollington St John’s Primary School will receive a Pupil Premium Grant of £18,895. This includes pupils who are cared for or are eligible for free school meals (FSM) either currently or previously (Ever 6) and were recorded on the school census. This is expected to remain the same until the next census when the funding is expected to change.
What are the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at our schools?
- Emotional well-being, particularly lack of resilience and independence skills.
- Low academic baseline - many of our Pupil Premium pupils have identified additional needs or require some form of specific provision.
- Support from home and limited experiences of the wider curriculum and community.
How the grant is used to address those barriers and the reasons for that approach
How we spend the funding is a whole school decision. We refer to the Educational Endowment Fund to select the best ways to improve pupils’ academic progress, emotional well-being and ensure inclusion in all the school has to offer.
- Mrs Ellen Watson is our Designated Senior Lead for Mental Health (DSLMH) and coordinates the whole school approach to mental well-being. Mrs Melanie Walker and Mrs Rebecca Gregory also support children with mental health challenges.
- In September 2024 we became a pilot school for the Stay Safe and Live Well scheme, an initiative which has been promoted by Cheshire East Local Authority, the aim of which is to positively impact the mental health of all children, staff and parents who are part of our school community. The purpose of this initiative was to help all those in our school community to access a toolkit of skills and habits which they can use to equip them if they face mental health challenges at any time in their future.
- We also offer restorative group work, and in spring 2022 we launched the Girls on Board initiative, to help our Key Stage 2 children to navigate friendship issues and to help them to recognise and deal with these in a positive and empowering way. We also offer social skills groups to support pupils with social communication difficulties.
- Since April 2024 we have access to an outside children's counsellor to provide emotional support to those children who have emotional challenges, which may or may not become a barrier to their learning. Meetings provide opportunities to reduce anxiety and develop confidence.
- We offer Forest Schools for all pupils including those in receipt of Pupil Premium funding.
- Funding also goes towards providing additional, skilled, adult support. This enables us to provide early intervention, either 1:1 or within a small group, to ‘diminish the gap’ between Pupil Premium pupils and their peers. Specific resources, specialist advice and staff training is also provided to enhance our provision, in order to meet our pupils’ needs.
- We host regular events for parents to advise them on changes to the curriculum, how we teach Maths, Reading etc. how to prepare their child for starting school etc.
- We feel that, whilst the funding should be focused on learning, children in receipt of Pupil Premium should be given the opportunity to experience a wide range of out of school activities. We help with the funding of school trips, after school clubs, residential visits, uniform, swimming and we offer the opportunity to play a musical instrument.
How we measure the impact of the Pupil Premium Grant
- All teaching staff are aware of who is eligible for Pupil Premium and this informs their planning. Regular assessments allow them to give pupils effective feedback.
- Pre and post assessment data from reading tests, spelling tests and Maths assessments etc are used to provide a baseline to track the impact of interventions. These are monitored every term with input from the lead adult and the SENCO.
- Pupil voice questionnaires are used to give an indication of pupils’ sense of well-being.
- Pupil Premium progress is monitored each term, at a designated staff meeting.
The Pupil Premium strategy is reviewed annually.
For the previous academic year 2024/2025 - the Pupil Premium Grant allocation was £18,460.
This was mainly used to provide additional adult support, resources and staff training to enhance the learning of Pupil Premium children. Funding ensured all Pupil Premium pupils were fully included in the opportunities offered by the school.
There remains a gap between the attainment of some Pupil Premium pupils and their peers. Some pupils have specific or significant difficulties which impact on their learning. We have also identified a lack of independence skills which improves significantly as pupils move through the school. We have access to regular advice and support from the Educational Psychology Service and the Cheshire East Autism Team, through their consultation process. Advice from other outside agencies such as the Speech and Language Service, Sensory Processing Occupational Therapy Support Service and the School Nursing Service is used to meet the needs of our pupils.
We have accessed training from the Cheshire East Autism Team on children with Pathological Demand Avoidance and the strategies which can be used to best support these needs which affect some of our Pupil Premium children.
Access to emotional support from staff has been beneficial in helping pupils to identify how they feel. They are encouraged to use strategies to reduce anxiety and self-regulate their emotions. This has led to an increased sense of well-being and self-confidence.
All Pupil Premium children had access to school trips and clubs, weekly swimming lessons, Forest Schools and the opportunity to learn a musical instrument.