Early Years Pupil Premium
What is the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)?
EYPP is a sum of money allocated to each Nursery School on a termly basis for eligible 9 month, 2, 3 & 4 year old children accessing their free entitlement in the Nursery that fulfil the criteria as set out by the DfE (Department for Education).
Children will be eligible for EYPP if they meet at least one of the following criteria:
Their family receives one of the following:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
- Income-based Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
- The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit, provided they are not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190
- Working Tax Credit run-on, which is paid for 4 weeks after they stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit
- They have been in Local Authority care for one day or more in England or Wales
- They have been adopted from care in England or Wales
- They have left care under a special guardianship order or residence order in England or Wales
The Department for Education states:
“The aim of the Early Years Pupil Premium is to close the gap between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and their peers by providing funding to early years providers to help them raise the quality of their provision....Providers will use this funding most effectively where they have the flexibility to innovate and to spend it on the strategies that they think will be most effective”
The Pupil Premium is additional funding and it will be used by the Nursery Schools to address inequalities by ensuring that funding reaches the pupils who need it most.
How is it Spent?
Pupil Premium money will be used flexibly across each Nursery School in a variety of ways in order to address the needs of children at any one time. This could be by:
- Providing small group work
- Providing some 1-1 opportunities during the session
- To enhance staff skills and knowledge by attending specific training courses
- Providing enhanced ‘real experiences’ for children, such as cooking, having caterpillars that hatch in to butterflies, woodwork opportunities
- Providing access to professional advice, support and services
- Providing additional equipment
- Helping to fund additional staffing throughout sessions to reduce staff to children ratios and provide additional support where children need it
How the funding is used will be determined by each Nursery School, according to the needs of the individual children attending the Nursery who are in receipt of Early Years Pupil Premium Funding and therefore may change from term to term.
Children who are Looked After
The Nursery Schools will liaise carefully with the ‘virtual school’ and the child’s Social Worker to decide how the money will be spent to maximise impact for the individual child.
How Do We Monitor Impact?
Evidence that the funding is having an impact on children’s progress will be found through discussions between staff and parents/carers, in children’s Learning Journals.