Pupil Premium
Money Advice Service Guide to Reducing Living Costs
Thurston Community College receives a grant from government to provide identified students with the additional support which may be necessary to ensure that they achieve their full potential.
The grant has two main aims:
- Raising the attainment of disadvantaged students and diminishing the differences with their peers
- Supporting students and families within the regular armed forces through challenging times by providing appropriate transition and pastoral support
The grant is paid in respect of students who have qualified for free school meals in the last six years, students who have been or are currently in care or have been adopted. It is also paid in respect of students whose parent has served in one of the regular armed forces within the last six years or in some circumstances is in receipt of a military pension.
Thurston Community College has the freedom to allocate the PP grant as it deems necessary to raise attainment and broaden aspirations for disadvantaged or other vulnerable students. For looked-after students allocation of funding is managed and allocated by the local authority who that student is under.
In deciding how to use our Pupil Premium Grant, we draw upon the following resources:
- Sutton Trust report: "School funding and Pupil Premium 2019"
- Education Endowment Foundation: Using Pupil Premium effectively
- Current research on disadvantaged pupils and gaps
- Our combined professional experience of what works best.
Further details of the strategies used to support students can be found in the following documents:
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2024 - 2025
If you require additional information about how the college can support your child please contact Mrs Dawn Ford, Assistant Principal (Director of Inclusion).
Funding
The Pupil Premium Grant per student for 2024 - 2025 is as follows
Ever 6 Free School Meals: The pupil premium for 2024-25 will include students recorded in the January 2025 census who are known to have been eligible for free school meals in any of the previous six years as well as those first known to be eligible at January 2025.
Children Adopted From Care or Who Have Left Care: The pupil premium for 2024-25 will include students recorded in the January 2025 census who were looked after by an English or Welsh Local Authority immediately before being adopted, or who left local authority care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order). These are collectively referred to as a post CLA.
Ever 6 Services Child: The grant will be paid in respect of a student recorded in the January 2025 census who was eligible for the service child premium at any time since the January 2018 census as well as those recorded for the first time on the January 2025 census.
Free School Meals
Summer Note - Free School Meals Holiday vouchers: Please note that these are now issued by a company working directly with Suffolk County Council. If you have any issues when exchanging your vouchers please contact Sodexo on 0800 5053924. For any other issues please contact freeschoolmeals@suffolk.gov.uk
Information on how to access Free School Meals
Accessing Free School Meals is a really effective way of ensuring that your child has a nutritious meal during the day. Every day the sum of £2.30 is credited to your child’s account. This means that over the course of a year your child is entitled to £437 worth of food.
You may apply for Free School Meals if you receive:
- Income Support
- Income based Job Seeker’s Allowance
- Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit but no element of Working Tax Credit and have an annual income (as assessed by HM Revenue & Customs) that does not exceed £16,190
- If you are supported under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- Working Tax Credit during the four-week period immediately after your employment finishes or after you start to work less hours per week
- Universal Credit
- If your child attends a Sixth Form you need to contact the school directly to find out if they are eligible and apply
If you would like further advice or to have a confidential interview to discuss any aspect of Free School Meals please contact your child’s Year Leader.
How to apply for Free School Meals
If you are entitled, please log on to the Suffolk County Council Website and complete the Free School Meal application form online.
Suffolk County Council will let both you and the College know when your application has been accepted. Once this is done, we will begin crediting your child with their daily allowance of £2.51.
All your child needs to do then is to select their food from any of the outlets around the College and use the cashless catering system to pay for it. As the system is cashless, your child will not be identified as being in receipt of a free school meal at the till.
Apply Here (Suffolk County Council)
Archived Documents
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2023 - 2024
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2021 - 2022
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement - 2020 - 2021
Pupil Premium Planned Expenditure - 2020 - 2021
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement - 2019 - 2020