Pupil Premium

What is Pupil Premium?

What is Pupil Premium?

The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers.

"It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools per FSM pupil, is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility" Source - DfE website as long as interventions funded by the pupil premium are demonstrably improving the performance of the pupils in receipt of the grant, schools may spend the money as they see fit.

Summary of the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at our school

• Significant gap in pupil attainment on entry to school when comparing Pupil Premium pupils and those not in that group.
• Readiness for ‘successful learning’ on entry to school – many children need support to develop active learning and independence skills when starting school.
• Significant numbers of pupils have difficulties with speech and language and this has an impact upon progress across the curriculum.
• Some pupils lack aspiration and engagement which can affect their ability to concentrate upon a task or maintain concentration when learning.
• Attendance of pupils requires close monitoring to ensure that children are in school whenever possible, accessing all learning opportunities. The school has close links with the Education Welfare Officer (EWO).
• A number of families receive support from the Parent Support Advisor where there may be contextual factors that can impact upon attendance, learning, behaviour and welfare of pupils.
• The need to engage all parents in supporting their children and the school so that all pupils are able to access every opportunity provided.

‘Leaders, including governors, ensure that the additional funding for disadvantaged pupils is used effectively. Booster groups, small-group support in reading, writing and mathematics, and homework clubs have helped ensure that these pupils make the same progress as all other pupils.’

‘Funding to support the learning of disadvantaged children is particularly well used to enhance speech and language development so their progress is similar to that of their classmates.’

Ofsted April 2016

How we measure the impact of the pupil premium

• Half termly progress meetings have a specific focus on PP children. Looking at progress and what strategies are working.
• Data collection – We look at the progress of PP children and report to Governors on their achievement.
• A link Governor is responsible for monitoring the impact of Pupil Premium. This involves looking at key documents, talking with children, challenging senior leaders regarding current spend and impact. This is then fed back to the whole Governing body.
• Half termly cohort plans detail record assessment data which informs the intervention and planning of these key groups. Tracking of these groups are also made through lesson monitoring, book scrutiny and pupil interviews.