Pupil Premium is government funding which schools can apply for to support particular individual children with their education. Wavendon Gate School can apply for up to £1455 per eligible child as long as the pupil is entitled to Free School Meals (FSM) now or within the last six years. We must spend this funding on that child.

In addition, we also receive funding for children who:

• have been looked after for one day or more
• have been adopted from care

Or who have left care under: 

• a special guardianship order
• a residence order
• a child arrangement order

Schools are free to spend the Pupil Premium funding as they see fit. However, we are held accountable for how we have used the additional funding to support pupils from low-income families. All schools are required to report on the amount of funding and how this is being used. Our aim, is to fully maximise this opportunity and make sure each eligible child has this extra funding, which is then used to make a difference to their progress. The school has decided that it would be best to support the child from two angles; academic support and social support. We will do this by investing the majority of the pupil premium into direct learning support such as one to one or small group tutoring. The social support is from our learning mentors who can support the child and family. 

Do you claim one of these benefits?

• 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)

Please note anyone receiving Working Tax Credits, regardless of Income, will NOT qualify for Pupil Premium.

If so, you could be entitled to some additional support which we can use with you to help your child to do their best at school. 

Please click on the Milton Keynes Application Portal below to apply.

Milton Keynes Application Portal

Once your application has been approved the council will send a code and confirmation of what you are eligible for. Please print a copy of this and bring it to the Admin Centre, so we can update our records and put in place arrangements for your child.

At Wavendon Gate School, we give great emphasis to the close tracking of pupil achievement to ensure all children are making good progress and we are then able to respond promptly if there are any concerns with individual children. We believe very strongly that all children can succeed and this underpins our school ethos. We mainly use this funding for additional classroom support, 1:1 tuition and the provision of learning mentor support.

Learning Mentors and DSLs

Amanda Dewhirst – pupil premium and attendance

The key use of our Pupil Premium funding in our school:

We use this funding to enrich the quality first teaching experiences of children, with an unrelenting drive on staff training and development. This is based on the ‘best practice’ approach advocated by the Department for Education and the Education Endowment Fund.

From this, we derive what is needed for the child. Some children may require interventions in school time. These are chosen by the class teacher and may be in conjunction with their year group planning partner. We aim for these to be reviewed regularly.

As a setting, we know that some children could require specific support in lessons or for this to be a consistent feature of their educational experiences. This will be tailored by the class teacher, supported through discussions with the Inclusion Manager in school and may draw upon outside agency support. 

Taking this further, we acknowledge as a school that barriers to education may be ‘outside the school gates’. This information is sensitively and appropriately shared in school to ensure that support from our team can reduce the impact. This could mean that a member of the school inclusion team could act as a ‘key worker’ for a child and/or family, liaison with differing agencies or appropriate targeted support to reduce a barrier. Our key message to the community we serve is that we can try to help with issues, even if it is to signpost support to a better place service.