Financial Support

Financial Support

At King Edwards VI Five Ways School we believe in supporting our already highly achieving students in removing social and environmental factors which may prevent them from reaching their full potential. At Five Ways our mission is to develop exceptional people through growing talent, investing in each other and caring about every person within our school community. This is why we are committed to improving the social mobility of our students who face the greatest challenges in their lives outside of school. We will support our less advantaged students so that they may achieve the same levels of academic success as everyone else.

The ‘State of the Nation’ report in 2019 suggested that there was 500, 000 more children living in poverty than in 2012. A figure that will have been made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic and recent cost of living crisis. In fact statistics released by the Department for Education in 2022 suggested that 22.5% of pupils in England qualify for Free School Meals (FSM), with 187, 641 of those children of secondary age here in Birmingham. The figures are even higher in families from Black, Asian and Minority Ethic (BAME) communities.

Children living in these circumstances face challenges in their lives that can significantly reduce their chances of educational success, and in turn, reduces their social mobility. These barriers can include:

• Living in overcrowded housing, which might make in difficult for a student to have a private study space
• Being a young carer
• Inadequate access to the best health and emotional care 
• limited funds at home to supplement studies with extracurricular opportunities with the family
• A lack of role models with further and higher level educational qualifications

Five Ways is committed to supporting the king Edwards VI Multi-Academy Trusts vision of making Birmingham the best place to be educated, and to do this we must work to make sure that children attending our school from less advantaged backgrounds receive equitable access to opportunities and support to aid their social mobility. 

At Five ways we will make the following commitments to our less advantaged families and their children:

• We will focus our pupil premium strategy and availability of the Post-16 bursary fund to support our already highly achieving, less advantaged pupils in reaching their academic goals.
• We will continue to deliver quality first teaching to all students regardless of their vulnerabilities, and to invest in teacher development so that all children are supported within the classroom and across all subjects and key stages.
• We will use the government’s catch-up funding to further develop the support available to our less advantaged students from Year 7-13.
• We will engage with strategies and other work to narrow the attainment gap between vulnerable and less vulnerable student groups so that no child is denied the opportunities to become socially mobile in their future.
• We will take a research and evidence based approach to supporting all children and to providing appropriate interventions to aid their success
• We will follow guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and The Sutton Trust in allocating our Pupil Premium budget- 50% towards quality first teaching, 25% towards small group and one-to-one individual support, and 25% on wider school strategies.

Different funding streams that are available for removing barriers to educational success here at Five Ways

There are various funding mechanisms available to help us achieve our goal of supporting our less advantaged learners. Below is a short summary of the different financial support available to our learners at different stages of their education here at Five Ways. For a more detailed picture of how these funds are administered, please see our policies section and pupil premium statement of intent.

EEF effective use of the Pupil Premium

The Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium (PP): funding that schools receive in addition to their central budget that is to be used to support students whose families maybe experiencing social or financial hardships up until the child completes Year 11. It is down to each school as to how to spend and allocate these funds, however at Five Ways we will follow the three part model outlined by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) – 50% towards quality first teaching, 25% towards small group and one-to-one individual support, and 25% on wider school strategies..

Who is eligible for Pupil Premium support?

• Children in receipt of Free School Meals (FSM), or have been in receipt of FSM in the last 6 years.
• Children of armed forces personnel where one or more parent is actively serving in the armed forces; a parent has served actively in the armed forces within the last 3 years; one of the child’s parents has died whilst serving in the armed forced and the family is in receipt of the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme and the War Pensions Scheme.
• Children who are in the care of the local authority
• Children who have been adopted from care

​You do not need to apply for your child to be eligible for the Pupil Premium. The school will automatically be notified of eligible children when data is transferred from their primary school.

Recovery premium funding
An extra amount of money to increase the amount of pupil premium money the school has to address recovery in students learning from the Covid-19 pandemic.

School-Led Tutoring fund
Schools will be given further funds to source their own tutoring provision for less advantaged and vulnerable students who have been more adversely effected by the Covid-19 pandemic than others.

Free School Meals

Free School Meals (FSM) refers to money that a school receives to provide one meal to each eligible child per day while they are in education. This is separate to the pupil premium and Post-16 bursary. At Five ways we ask families to check their eligibility through Birmingham City Council by clicking the following link to means test financial circumstances: https://www.cloudforedu.org.uk/ofsm/birmingham

School will be automatically be notified of the status of your application and will credit the students lunch account with £2.40 per day if a successful application is made. It should be noted this money does not role over to the next day if it isn’t spent. All children eligible for FSM will automatically be eligible for the Pupil Premium.

The Post-16 student bursary

Pupil Premium funding does not carry through to Post 16 study at any institution. The Post-16 bursary is a fund that allows students to access financial support for materials to advance their A Level studies. The administration of this fund is regulated by the Education, skills and Funding Agency (EFSA). Under this guidance we are obliged to provide different levels of financial support to students that reflects their families’ economic position.

• Families can still claim for FSM in addition to bursary support by completing a means testing assessment at the following address: https://www.cloudforedu.org.uk/ofsm/birmingham
• When a student starts their studies in Year 12 a new application for FSM must be made regardless of eligibility in Year 11, or previous school.

The Five ways Sixth Form is limited to what the Post-16 bursary can be used toward, by EFSA regulations. Students can only claim support from the Post-16 bursary to remove barriers to their education. At Five Ways Sixth Form this includes the following:

• A contribution to bus travel of £285 per academic year.
• Text-books, revision guides, stationary, scientific calculators, lab coats and protective goggles for use in lab work.
• Compulsory curriculum activities such as a geography filed trip.
• Supporting an application, visit to or access to university or higher level apprenticeships.
• A laptop which will be serviced and maintained by school and must be returned to school upon completion of their studies.
• A daily free school meal of £2.40 if you have not been successful in your application for FSM but would like to direct your bursary funds in this way.

If you would like to be considered for the Post-16 Bursary support, you will need to send evidence of your household income to Mr Snelson. If you have been accepted for FSM you do not have to do this as you will automatically be entitled to bursary support.

Your son/daughter will be able to start making purchases once they have received a confirmation letter, but where possible these will be made by the school and issued to the students when they are available. Every purchase will need to be authorised using the attached purchase form, and as mentioned are restricted to the identified items.

Post-16 tuition catch-up fund.

Money awarded to Five Ways Sixth Form to support the extra tuition of students from the most deprived 25% of postcodes nationally.  This money can only be spent to provide extra tutoring to students studying their A Levels at Five Ways. This support can come from their own class teachers, or from external agencies. Tuition must take place in groups of no more than 6 students.

Claim Form https://5956339f-4f88-4637-9261-90577173f34c.filesusr.com/ugd/0ec371_7d69c13596d8400bb3648f1c08e4837f.docx?dn=202122%20claim%20form.docx