Free School Meals & Pupil Premium – An Important Message for Parents and Carers (Reception to Year 2)

At Wellfield Infant and Nursery School, all children in Reception, Year 1 and Year 2 automatically receive a free school meal under the Universal Infant Free School Meals scheme. However, if a family meets the eligibility criteria for Free School Meals (usually linked to certain benefits), this also allows school to receive additional funding, known as Pupil Premium.

This funding makes a real and meaningful difference. It enables us to:

• Provide additional learning and emotional support for children
• Enhance enrichment opportunities, resources and experiences
• Support children’s wellbeing, confidence and readiness to learn
• Ensure that every child is able to fully access all aspects of school life

Importantly, at no point is a child labelled, identified or singled out. Children are never aware of who is eligible, and this funding is used carefully and thoughtfully to strengthen what we offer across the whole school, while ensuring individual needs are met.

We are particularly keen to encourage applications from:

• Families who have never applied before
• Families whose circumstances may have changed recently
• Families who are unsure whether they might be eligible

Many parents are surprised to find that they do qualify, and a short application can make a significant difference to the support we are able to provide.

You can check the eligibility criteria here:
👉 Check your eligibility here

If you think you may be eligible, or if you are unsure, please complete the online application form via Trafford using the link below:
👉 Apply here

Once you have completed the application, school will automatically be notified of the outcome.

Looking ahead, I would also like to make families aware that the universal free school meal offer ends when children move into Year 3. From this point, families who are eligible will continue to receive free meals, while others will need to pay. Applying now ensures continuity and support in the future, if applicable.

If you have any questions or would like support with the process, please do not hesitate to contact our School Office, who will be very happy to help.

Our Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Coordinator (SENDCO), Mrs Michelle Tucker is responsible for monitoring how the funding is spent and the impact of this on pupils' attainment.

How do we use Pupil Premium Funding at Wellfield Infants?

The Pupil Premium at Wellfield Infants is used to provide targeted support for groups and individual pupils and their families.

We ensure that the funding is used to support the needs of each individual pupil premium child and this is how we are currently using our allocated Pupil Premium Funding:

• To provide high quality, inclusive teaching

• Intervention strategy support from highly skilled Teaching Assistants in small groups or 1:1 precision teaching for the individual pupil

• Focused support in whole class group teaching or small groups, provided by highly skilled teaching assistants

At Wellfield we are fortunate to employ several experienced teaching assistants which enables us to offer additional classroom support and a wide range of intervention groups to support children's teaching and learning. These staff are part funded by our Pupil Premium funding. The interventions they deliver cover a wide range of skills including phonics, speech and language, writing, reading, comprehension, numeracy and fine motor skills. These are tailored to individuals and groups and monitored by the school's Special Educational Needs Coordinator. All of our intervention activities are evaluated and regularly reviewed in light of the targets set and children's progress towards them. The interventions that take place all have a positive impact on pupil progress and, for some pupils, they help the children to make rapid progress which result in their attainment being more in line with, or above, their age related expectations (see Pupil Premium Strategy Report).
 

We also use some of the funding to provide emotional support for individuals through sessions with our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) or through 1:1 counselling sessions. These sessions are provided for children for a variety of reasons including attachment difficulties, bereavement therapy, the development of social interaction skills and anxiety issues. All of the pupils benefit enormously by the regular sessions they have. 

Some of the Pupil Premium funding is also used to support families to enable them to provide their children with everything they need to access a full education. This includes; providing additional resources they may need for home or school, fully funded school trips, funded after school activities led by external providers. 

To find out more about how our Pupil Premium funding has been spent please click on the documents below.