Service Pupil Premium
What is the Service Pupil Premium (SPP)?
- SPP is money that is paid directly to state schools, free schools and academies across England to support Service children. The current amount paid to each school is £340 (2024-2025 academic year) per child in Years R-11.
- The Premium was introduced by the Department for Education (DfE) as part of the commitment to delivering the Armed Forces Covenant. The premium enables schools to provide extra support for children with parents in the Armed Forces.
Eligibility
- Children of currently serving Service personnel
- Children of members of the Full Time Reserve Service Full Commitment
- Children with a parent who has died in Service and are in receipt of a pension through the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme/War Pensions Scheme
- Children who have been recorded as a Service child on a school census in England at any time within the last 6 years. This covers children with parents who may now have left the Armed Forces but a school will continue to receive SPP under the DfE’s ever 6 Service child measure
Please be aware that if your child was not recorded on a school census in England as a ‘Service child’ prior to the serving parent leaving the Army then the child will not be eligible for SPP.
- SPP is separate from the Pupil Premium
- Schools decide how the money is to be spent on Service children mainly through pastoral support. Unlike the Pupil Premium, SPP is not for attainment; however, mobile Service children may need targeted help in a new school to catch up with their class or to cover gaps in understanding due to missing out on key learning areas
- Children who are electively home educated do not qualify for the SPP
The above information is an extract from the Army Families Federation (AFF). More information can be found on their website.
You can also find further information on the Department for Education (DfE) website.
How is Service Pupil Premium spent at Mendip Green?
In accordance with AFF and DFE guidance, our ambition is to recognise and remove/mitigate barriers that may occur as a result of being a 'Service child'. Our strategy is focused on providing pastoral support to help children navigate the separation from a parent and or worry the nature of their role may bring, as well as academic support, which may be necessary if a child has experienced school changes due to mobility or because there is limited capacity to support at home with a parent on active duty.
Every child is unique and every family has their own circumstances. Some children, for example, my be unaware that a parent is on active duty, so the pastoral support they will need would focus more on separation than on anxiety.
Teachers are aware of children in receipt of SPP and will ask families about specific circumstances. Alongside our pastoral team, they will establish the most appropriate support for each child. We acknowledge that this will ebb and flow throughout a child's school career - at times requiring quite intensive support and, at others, minimal intervention.
Our SPP funding is subsumed into a much larger 'Pupil Premium' pot. By doing this, we can achieve economies of scale and ensure that every child gets as much focused support as possible. The only element of our Pupil Premium strategy that is not open to Service children is financial support with educational trips (which is inline with DFE guidance) unless, of course, the child is also in receipt of Pupil Premium.
Examples of how we spend our Pupil Premium fund to support pupils in receipt of SPP
Pastoral Support (Provided by our full-time team)
- Counselling/support
- facilitate skype calls with posted parents
- Emotional regulation / resilience work
- Attendance support for children and families
- Lunch/breaktime provision for children with specific needs/barriers/anxieties
- Nurture groups
Academic support
- Intervention from class teachers
- Phonics intervention
- Cognition & learning groups
- Talkboost intervention
- Teaching assistant support in class during morning sessions
Further information on our funding can be found in our Pupil Premium strategy.
If you would like to discuss support for your child or find out more, please see your child's class teacher or contact Mrs Young (Pastoral Lead) on 01934 513791.