PUPIL PREMIUM AT SIJS
The Pupil Premium is additional funding provided to publicly funded schools in England. It is intended to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils and help them achieve as well as their peers.
Funding
In the 2026/27 financial year, primary schools receive:
- £1,550 for each pupil who is eligible for free school meals, or who has been eligible at any point during the previous six years.
- £2,690 for each pupil who was previously looked after by a local authority or other state care. This includes pupils who left care through adoption, a special guardianship order or a child arrangements order.
Pupil Premium is not a personal budget for an individual child. Schools decide how to use the funding based on the barriers experienced by their pupils and the evidence about what is most likely to improve their outcomes.
If you feel you are eligible for Pupil Premium funding, please speak to your child’s teacher or make an appointment to see Mrs Watts. Whilst we cannot make an application on your child’s behalf, we will give you all the assistance we can to help you make the application.
Free School Meals and Pupil Premium eligibility
From the beginning of the 2026/27 academic year, children in households receiving Universal Credit are eligible for free school meals, regardless of household income.
There are two categories of free school meals:
- Expanded free school meals: available to children in households receiving Universal Credit.
- Targeted free school meals: based on the existing income threshold. Pupils in this category may generate Pupil Premium funding for the school.
Some families receiving other qualifying benefits may also be eligible.
Registering your child helps the school to identify their entitlement and may provide additional funding that can support pupils across the school.
If you think your child may be eligible, please speak to their teacher or make an appointment with Mrs Watts. We cannot complete an application on your behalf, but we will provide as much help as possible.
How do we use the Pupil Premium grant at SIJS to support pupils?
Disadvantage is a significant feature of our school context. Currently, 49% of pupils at SIJS are eligible for Pupil Premium funding. Our approach to disadvantage therefore influences how we organise teaching, attendance support, pastoral provision, enrichment and our work with families.
At SIJS, we have high expectations for every pupil.
Disadvantage is not a label for provision. We do not assume that all disadvantaged pupils have the same needs. Teachers and leaders identify the actual barriers experienced by each pupil and respond accordingly.
These barriers may include:
- access to learning and the curriculum;
- gaps in foundational knowledge, vocabulary or language;
- special educational needs or disabilities;
- social, emotional or mental health needs;
- attendance or persistent absence;
- family circumstances;
- limited access to enrichment and wider experiences; or
- confidence and independence in learning.
Where disadvantage overlaps with SEND, lower prior attainment, SEMH, emotionally based school avoidance or wider vulnerability, support is planned around the individual pupil.
How the funding supports pupils
Our spending is organised around three areas.
High-quality teaching
High-quality classroom teaching is our first priority. Funding supports:
- adaptive teaching that enables pupils to access the full curriculum;
- literacy and writing development, including Grammarsaurus training;
- metacognitive strategies that help pupils understand and manage their learning;
- explicit modelling and scaffolding that is gradually reduced as independence grows;
- vocabulary development and secure foundational skills;
- effective assessment, feedback and responsive teaching; and
- staff training, coaching and professional development.
Targeted academic support
Where assessment identifies a specific need, pupils may receive time-limited, evidence-informed support. This may include:
- targeted reading and fluency support;
- targeted writing or mathematics support;
- structured individual or small-group teaching;
- pre-teaching and overlearning; and
- additional support to accelerate learning.
Interventions have clear starting points and intended outcomes. Entry and exit information is used to review whether the support has made a difference.
Wider strategies
Funding also supports pupils whose learning is affected by attendance, wellbeing, family circumstances or access to wider opportunities. This includes:
- Family Liaison Officer support;
- attendance intervention and work with families;
- The Haven nurture provision;
- parent and carer engagement;
- funded breakfast club provision;
- Forest School or nurture support where this addresses an identified barrier;
- extra-curricular sport, clubs and activities; and
- support with visits, enrichment and wider experiences.
Participation is monitored so that we can identify and respond to pupils who remain under-represented.
How do we know that support is effective?
We evaluate the difference provision makes for individual pupils and families. Participation in an activity alone is not regarded as evidence of impact.
Leaders use a range of evidence, including:
- assessment information;
- pupil progress reviews;
- pupils’ work and book looks;
- pupil voice and individual conferencing;
- attendance and persistent absence tracking;
- intervention entry and exit information;
- enrichment participation;
- vulnerable pupil overviews;
- Family Liaison Officer evidence; and
- feedback from parents and carers.
We consider whether pupils are:
- learning and remembering more;
- becoming more independent;
- attending more regularly;
- participating more fully in school life;
- developing confidence and positive relationships; and
- achieving improved academic outcomes.
Impact
Recent outcomes at the expected standard are a relative strength for disadvantaged pupils at SIJS. Reading, writing, mathematics and combined reading, writing and mathematics outcomes compare positively with disadvantaged pupils nationally. Recent disadvantaged reading and combined outcomes also compare positively with similar schools.
We recognise that strong headline figures do not describe the experience of every pupil. Within-school pupil-level gaps and consistency in writing remain areas for attention. Increasing the proportion of pupils achieving greater depth is an important next step.
Attendance and persistent absence also remain priorities for a small number of disadvantaged pupils and families, particularly where disadvantage overlaps with SEND, SEMH, emotionally based school avoidance or wider vulnerability.
We continually review our provision to establish:
- what is working consistently;
- what difference is visible for pupils;
- what remains inconsistent; and
- what further action is required.
For further details on how we have spent and plan to spend our Pupil Premium funding, please see the reports below:
