Service Pupil Premium

Bisley Basics: What is the service pupil premium and how do we use it?

The purpose of the Service Pupil Premium

Eligible schools receive the SPP so that they can offer mainly pastoral support during challenging times and to help mitigate the negative impact on service children of family mobility or parental deployment.

Mobility is when a service family is posted from one location to another, including overseas and within the UK.

Deployment is when a service person is serving away from home for a period of time. This could be a 6 to 9 month tour of duty, a training course or an exercise which could last for a few weeks.

How Service Pupil Premium differs from the Pupil Premium

The SPP is there for schools to provide mainly pastoral support for service children, whereas the Pupil Premium was introduced to raise attainment and accelerate progress within disadvantaged groups.

Schools should not combine SPP with the main Pupil Premium funding and the spending of each premium should be accounted for separately.

What could the Service Pupil Premium be used for?

In order to support the pastoral needs of service children, schools have flexibility over how they use the SPP, as they are best placed to understand and respond to the specific needs of those pupils for whom the funding has been allocated. The funding could be spent on providing a variety of means of support including counselling provision, nurture groups, e-bluey clubs etc.

Schools might also consider how to improve the level of and means of communication between the child and their deployed parents. Some schools have introduced ‘Skype time’ clubs, whilst other schools have helped children to develop scrapbooks and diaries that they can show their parents on their return, highlighting their achievements and day to day school life. In addition, staff hours may be required to support the needs of service children when they join a new school as a result of a posting or when a parent is deployed and these hours could be funded by the Service Pupil Premium.

Within schools which experience high levels of service pupil mobility, Mobility Co-ordinators, Forces Liaison Officers, Parent Support Advisors etc. have been employed. These posts tend to work closely with the pupils and families when they move into the area or are due to leave. Such staff can also support pupils and families where a parent is deployed.

SPP should not be used to subsidise routine school activity (trips, music lessons etc.), however, schools may choose to fund school trips just for service children, to help them enjoy their time at school and build a sense of a wider community and understanding of the role their service parent plays (e.g. with military specific trips) to help them cope with the potential strains of service life.

Schools are held to account for the spending of this funding through the focus in Ofsted inspections on the progress and attainment of their wider Pupil Premium eligible pupil cohort.

Please note that this information has been taken directly from the gov.uk website https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-service-pupil-premium/service-pupil-premium-what-you-need-to-know

How do we use the SPP at Bisley?

At Bisley all service children are invited to the following sessions:

• Welcome back sessions: At the beginning of each half term one of the Home School Link Workers will hold a welcome back session for service children only during the school day. This is an opportunity to re-group, see what has changed and what support is needed.
• Daily Breakfast Boost: This is open from 7.45-8.45am and is run by school staff. The children have the opportunity to have a Boost to their school day with a free breakfast (we ask that each family donate a box of cereals per term), the opportunity to take part in educational games, read to an adult/older child and also a place to complete homework/ask for extra support. Please note that the Breakfast Boost is open to ALL children who receive additional pupil premium, not just service children.
• Service Children’s Club: Mrs Hunt (HSLW) will run a service children’s club on a Wednesday after school every week (these sessions will run the same weeks as teacher led clubs). The main aim of these sessions is for the service children to be able to spend quality time together, to give them a forum to chat, the opportunity to explore related issues and most importantly to build a network within school and support each other.

In addition we also offer the following pastoral support which any service family can access:

• Pastoral support at Bisley covers many things and includes, but is not limited to the following:

• A Home School Service Link Worker
• Settling the children in when they start at our school, including welcome sessions and weekly welcome breakfasts.
• Liaising with the previous school to ensure that we have all the information regarding the children possible.
• Assessing the children when they enter Bisley to ensure that they are placed in the correct groups and receive the correct teaching.
• Den sessions at lunchtime for children who prefer a quieter area.
• 1 to 1 sessions for children who need support especially when family members are deployed.
• Pop up Service Cafes for parents and family members.

When and how do we receive the SPP?

Service parents are encouraged to ensure that the Head Teacher of their child(ren)’s school is made aware of their Service status for the Spring School Census which is always in January. The school will then receive the SPP (£300 per pupil) at the beginning of the new financial year, April.

Whichever school you are enrolled in on census day will receive that year’s allocation – the SPP is not portable.This means that if you start at a new school at the end of January, (after census day) the school will not receive the SPP until the following April.

If you require any further clarification on how we spend SPP please speak to Mrs Fisher, School Business Manager or Mrs McConnell, Headteache