Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium is a government funding allowance which is additional to main school funding. It
was introduced in April 2011 and is allocated to schools to work with pupils who have been
registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years (known as Ever 6 FSM). As a
group, children who have been eligible for FSM at any point in time have consistently lower
educational attainment than those who have never been eligible for FSM.
From September 2012, the DFE required schools to publish online information about how they
have used their Pupil Premium funding to ensure that parents/carers and others are made fully
aware of the attainment of pupils covered by the Premium.
The Pupil Premium provides schools which take the poorest children more money so they
can spend it on ways to improve the outcome for that group.
It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium is spent, since they are best placed to assess
what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility.
However, they will be held accountable for how they have used the additional funding to support
pupils from low-income families.
The level of the premium in 2013-14 was 900 per eligible Secondary pupil, and 953 per eligible
Primary pupil. In 2014-15 the secondary allowance will be 935, and the primary allowance will
be 1300.
The total amount of money paid to the Maharishi Free School in 2013-14 as Pupil Premium was
25 490.
This money has been used principally to create the following provision:
"
provide classroom teaching assistants throughout the school (in addition to pupils with
identied needs recognised in a statement of special educational needs);
"
maintain the post of SENCO/Teacher support;
"
maintain class sizes at 18 pupils.
Class sizes at the Maharishi Free School are smaller by about 10-12 pupils compared to other
state funded schools. With 12 classes in the school this means that the Maharishi Free School
has between 120-144 fewer pupils in total than other schools with a similar number of classes.
This enables greater di#erentiation in class resulting in more focused attention on disadvantaged
pupils. As a result of reducing the teacher:pupil ratio, teachers are able to meet parents more
frequently which assists in guiding pupils more e#ectively in school and helping families to
support the education of pupils at home. The SENCO/Teacher support also participated in these
meetings.
The post of SENCO/Teacher support is partly funded by the pupil premium because it requires the
person appointed to support class teachers through training and IEPs, for example to
e#ectively recognise and support any pupil disadvantage.
Teaching assistants at the Maharishi Free School support the learning of pupils. It is estimated
that 20% of a teaching assistants working time is devoted to supporting pupils eligible for fee
school meals.
Funding analysis and evaluation
Pupil Premium income: 25 490 (2013-14). This funding is spent as follows:
"
Total cost of employing classroom assistants = 75 000. It is estimated that pupils in receipt of
free school meals utilise 15 000 (20%) of this sum.
"
Pupil Premium supplies about 10 000 towards the cost of the SENCO/Teacher Support.
"
Cost of reducing class sizes is calculated by multiplying the reduction in total pupil numbers by
the funding received per pupil: 120 pupils x 4000 = 480 000.
The e#ectiveness of this approach is frequently analysed using the Maharishi Free School
programme of standardised testing and comparing this with the professional judgement of
teachers using a standardised grading system which is reported to families termly. In this way the
progress of pupils in receipt of free school meals can be compared with both other pupils in the
school and, through standardised testing, other pupils nationally. This is monitored by the
Governing Body.