Pupil Premium Plus - any ideas?

If your child genuinely currently doesn't need particular support then I'd maybe consider asking them to spend it something that would benefit a larger group of children. One of my current bug bears is how little schools invest in personnel and equipment to help make playtimes more structured (for those who need it) and more creative. A midday assistant for a year costs about the same as the PP+; they could train one up to be a play leader and actually engage groups of children on the playground with structured games and setting up other activities beforehand that other children can then just pick up and use as and when they want to. This would benefit your child at times as well as others and would be a long term resource for the whole school community but would also mean that if your daughter did begin to struggle as she hits that social nightmare pre-puberty stage that Year 6 girls are horribly capable of, there would already be someone in place who could be used as a more individual support. This would need to be an additional member of staff employed particularly for play skills, not just re-deploying a current midday assistant.


Another alternative would be to ask them to consider paying for/buying in something for the whole school as a one off event that they wouldn't usually be able to afford but that your child would particularly enjoy - so if she's creative then a puppeteer and puppet making workshop or a drama workshop, if she's into writing stories then a storyteller to come in and work with the children for a day, or a paid-for school trip out somewhere. Things like that can really lift the pressure/stress and atmosphere of a school and would have a positive effect on all the staff and children - which would then obviously be good for your daughter too.

Thanks for all the ideas. In the end we decided to focus it on dd's current needs, despite them not being either adoption related or high priority, and the head seems to think they are fine. One is over her physical skills - she was slow to develop some gross motor skills and still feels she suffers in comparison to others eg often complains she can't run fast (she is not that slow in reality, but is quite defeatist about it). The other was re pushing her on in maths - she loves it and achieves well but has recently complained her work at school is too easy and in fact insisted we tell her teacher at parents evening (!) , so we thought school might as well focus on that a bit if they are willing to. Will see what they come up with.....