Our Pupil Premium Co-ordinator is Mr Axten-Higgs

Our Pupil Premium Link governor is Gill Owen. 

The Pupil Premium is designed to ensure that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. The funding is allocated to Local Authorities and schools with pupils from Reception to Y11 who are eligible for free school meals (FSM), are looked after or have parents currently in the Armed Forces.

It should not be confused with the Universal Free School Meals - which provides funding for school dinners for pupils in Reception, Years 1 and 2.

At Ridgefield Primary School we spend the money in 3 key ways to best support the children’s education:

• Improving the quality of the teaching experience that the children receive in their classrooms on a day-to-day basis (training teachers and teaching assistants; utilising teaching assistants from across the school to reduce group teaching sizes for phonics; support early language development programmes for our youngest children; paying for teaching assistants to support classes and reduce the adult:child ratio)

• Targetted academic support for those who need it (running small group interventions for children who need support to achieve their Age Related Expectations in each year group: ranging from small maths or phonics groups, to social skills programmes and language skills development groups to ensure children can participate fully in their classroom lessons)

• A range of wider support strategies to ensure that children can make the most of their experiences at Ridgefield (including running a Nurture provision to allow children who can’t sustain formal classroom learning yet a place where they can learn the skills they need at a level appropriate for them; supporting Breakfast Club, so that every child can attend school without the distraction of hunger; subsidised educational visit, reducing the costs for those families that cannot afford it, so their children do not miss out; subsidised musical tuition opportunities)

This is just a flavour of the kinds of things that we use the Pupil Premium funding to do.

Please find above a 'Count me in!' form which is used for parents to apply for pupil premium and free school meals. Please can you complete the form if you feel that you might qualify for the funding.

If you have doubts as to whether you would be entitled to this funding, it would be advisable to apply. Even if your child receives the universal free school meals (Reception, Year 1 and 2), it is still advisable to apply. If you are eligible for the funding, the school can provide a free school meal, discount on school trips and also offer funded participation for your child on an outside agency sports/activity club which runs after school.