Pupil Premium
ALLOCATION OF PUPIL PREMIUM
The Pupil Premium is an allocation of additional funding provided to schools to support specific groups of children who are vulnerable to possible underachievement. These include pupils who are entitled to free school meals, those looked after by the local authority and children of armed service personnel. The intended effect of this funding is to accelerate progress and raise attainment.
In most cases the Pupil Premium is allocated to schools and is clearly identifiable. It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools per Free School Meal pupil, is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility.
All schools are required to report on the amount of funding received, how this is being used, and the impact of any work done.
The main challenges our pupils eligible for Pupil Premium face are:
- Pupils generally have greater difficulties with phonics than their peers. This negatively impacts their development as readers.
- 24% of pupil premium children also have additional special educational needs with 8% having an Education Health Care Plan. 4% have English as a second language.
- Some of our pupils have also struggled with emotional regulation, especially with the overlap with additional needs.
- Absenteeism for pupils is higher than other pupils which impacts on their understanding of key areas of learning.
- Transition for pupils can be challenging and we want our pupils to be well supported at key times including when they first join the school.
We used the tiered model and menu of approaches from the Education Endowment Fund to plan how we spend the grant. See the full document by clicking here.
We have 45 pupils who are registered in our school this year, which gives us an additional grant of £70,510.00.
This was, and continues to be used as follows:
- To provide intervention programmes for underachieving pupils and those with SEN (Special Educational Needs). This includes the phonics scheme we use and also the system we use to track reading ages.
- To improve how we teach spelling in Years 3 to 6 so that this does not stop them achieving age related expectations.
- To fund the use of Thrive intervention as a way of helping pupils who are struggling with emotional regulation.
- To be able to employ a Home-School Link Worker to support parents with any area which may affect their child learning including monitoring of attendance.
- To help our youngest pupils have a settled and calm transition to school.
- To support children's wellbeing, particularly with ELSA support and referrals to the Mental Health in Schools Team.
- To close the gap in maths attainment between pupils.
We also use this money to subsidise educational visits, including residential trips, for example by funding board and lodgings and some of our less confident eligible children were able to enjoy a number of Forest School sessions, which has had a huge impact on their self-esteem, confidence and attitude to learning.
All matters regarding the use of Pupil Premium funds are treated with discretion and in confidence. Please click here for more information.
Funding and Impact Reports
To see the impact of how the funding was used in 2023 please click here.
To see how we are using this year's funding click here.
