The New Pupil Premium Filter

The Spring 2013 release of SIMS includes the new pupil premium filter. With each pupil attracting £600 of extra income for schools, Ofsted are keen that schools can prove that the money is being spent well. From Ofsted’s pupil premium guidance document:

“School leaders, including governing bodies, should ensure that Pupil Premium funding is not simply absorbed into mainstream budgets, but instead is carefully targeted at the designated children. They should be able to identify clearly how the money is being spent.”

The new filter is available not just in marksheets, but also in analysis grids and tracking grids. The pupil premium filter has simply been added to the list of existing filters – just tick the box and click ‘Apply’. Remember: it’s easy to see the children who don’t receive the pupil premium. Just click the ‘exclude’ button first, then tick the pupil premium option and click ‘apply’.

The majority of pupils receiving the pupil premium will be eligible because they have been deemed eligible for free school meals (FSM) at some point in the last 6 years. Because many schools won’t have this eligibility data (so-called ‘FSM Ever 6″) the DfE have published the information online as both a spreadsheets and as a SIMS import file (CTF). You’ll find more information from the DfE about this data and how to download it here.

Capita have also provided a SIMS report (Reports | Run Report) called ‘DFE FSM Ever 6’ – a different version for each school census. You can run this report to help you identify your premium pupils, and add to the list children who qualify for pupil premium for other reasons (eg looked after, children of service men/women etc)

To populate the pupil premium data field open up the pupil record and navigate to section 9 ‘Additional Information’ (see screenshot). Place a tick in the relevant box. Alternatively you can use the bulk update option (Routines | Pupil | Bulk Update).