"pupil premium" in Pates what is your opinion

[Amber]

http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pup ... 0076063/pp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

In short, funding to help children from disadvantaged backgrounds within state schools.

[Superflygirl]

One of my sons is at school with a boy who commutes for an hour and a half each way daily to get to Gloucester. To my mind this is inhuman, but while the system is as it is, children will be put through this. Actually it makes me smile in a way - it is only a flipping school, and not so very different from any other flipping school at the end of the (very long) day.

Totally agree - its ridiculous for a child to commute that amount on top of a school day. As I've previously said sometimes I think that it's more about the parents than the poor children involved!!

[Amber]

I think that some parents are terrified that a child will fester and rot in a dreadful 'sink' school, with loutish kids and incompetent teachers; and that a GS is some kind of haven for goodness, intelligence and perfect teaching. I teach in what many would regard as the former and have kids at 2 of the latter. There is rather less difference than many of these parents would want to believe, and it is a pity they don't find this out before putting their offspring on trains, boats and planes at the crack of dawn and subjecting them to years of long dark journeys and being hours away from their school friends.

Sorry if OT - not even sure what the T is now.

[DC17C]

Having done the daily commute from Bristol to Gloucester there is no way I would consider it for my children. My partner is currently commuting from Gloucester to Bristol and I know how tired he is most days.

[custard]

That's interesting. DS goes to a primary school in a less affluent area but we don't qualify for free school meals.

[hermanmunster]

That's interesting. DS goes to a primary school in a less affluent area but we don't qualify for free school meals.

PP is allocated to schools for individual children who receive free school meals (and the service premium for those in the armed forces)

[magwich2]

What is going to happen if your child qualifies for the "pupil premium" at the time of passing but then no longer qualifies after september ( the best of marriages can experience arguments and temporary separation- just sayin')

[magwich2]

What is going to happen if your child qualifies for the "pupil premium" at the time of passing but then no longer qualifies after september ( the best of marriages can experience arguments and temporary separation- just sayin')

[suzanne]

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[Amber]

What is going to happen if your child qualifies for the "pupil premium" at the time of passing but then no longer qualifies after september ( the best of marriages can experience arguments and temporary separation- just sayin')

It will have been scrapped by then anyway, as all new initiatives only last a few months. Long enough to grab the headlines: 'Millions of children rescued from poverty', but not long enough to foot the bill.

I then propose an annual cull of all those children who thus qualified for a place and whose parents have fallen on soft times and are now rolling in excess cash.

Mind you, to make it fair, all GS students should be tested annually in 11+ style 'continuation assessments', the results of which should be published and used to expel pupils who don't make the grade. Imagine the publishing and tutoring jobs which would be created by that initiative. I shall grab the copyright forthwith.