Pupil Premium

DFE - Government link for the Pupil Premium allocation for the 2020-2021 academic year.

 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2020-to-2021 

Minster C of E Primary School

    Pupil Premium Report to Parents September 2021/2022

Overview

The Pupil Premium was introduced in April 2011. It is additional funding for vulnerable children who are statistically proven to underachieve academically compared to their peers. Pupil Premium is paid by means of a specific grant based on school census figures. The Pupil Premium is additional to main school funding and it will be used to address any underlying inequalities between children who are eligible and their peers. To ensure that funding reaches the pupils who need it most we closely monitor individual children academically as well as socially and emotionally. Children qualify for Pupil Premium if they fall into one of the three following categories:

• Eligible for Free School Meals
• Child in Care
• A child with parents in the Armed Forces

It is our aim that all pupils receive the best possible education and are encouraged and supported with their learning so they attain and achieve well. We maintain a clear focus on any pupils who are not reaching expected attainment or making adequate progress and have a clear tracking system with Provision Maps in place to ensure we monitor and target any support that is necessary. We also liaise with outside agencies and communicate with parents/carers so they are kept informed. The school makes every effort to encourage families who are able to claim Free School Meals to do so.

Eligible pupils come under the following groups:

Free School Meals

To be eligible for a Free School Meal, families need to receive one of the following benefits:

• Income Support
• income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• the guaranteed element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
• Universal Credit - if you apply on or after 1 April 2018 your household income must be less than £7,400 a year (after tax and not including any benefits you get

If you qualify your child/children will be able to receive a Free School Meal as well as the Pupil Premium grant to support them in school.  From September the school is given £1,345 per child that fit this criterion.  This makes a significant difference to their education. Your child does not have to have the hot meal for the school to receive the funding. 

Children in Care

Children in Care are automatically eligible for funding with the Pupil Premium. As a school we bid for the funding. We detail, with supporting evidence, the additional interventions that the children receive and the cost of this support to the school. Children in Care are eligible for funding up to £2,345 this academic year.

Schools will also receive £2,345 for each pupil identified in the spring school census as having left local-authority care because of 1 of the following:

• adoption
• a special guardianship order
• a child arrangements order
• a residence order

Service Children

A premium has also been introduced for children whose parents are currently serving in the Armed Forces. This Service Premium of £310 is designed to address the emotional and social well-being of these pupils. It is also used to close any attainment gaps.  

Objectives of the Pupil Premium in this School

• The Pupil Premium will be used to provide additional educational support to improve the progress and to raise the standard of achievement for these pupils
• The funding will be used to narrow and close the gap between the achievement of these pupils and their peers
• As far as its powers allow the school will use the additional funding to address any underlying inequalities between children eligible for Pupil Premium and their peers
• We will ensure that the additional funding reaches the pupils who need it most and that it makes a significant impact on their education and lives.

Accountability, roles and responsibilities

Headteacher and senior leadership team

The headteacher and senior leadership team are responsible for:

• Keeping the Pupil Premium strategy up to date, and ensuring that it is implemented across the school
• Ensuring that all school staff are aware of their role in raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and supporting pupils with parents in the armed forces
• Planning pupil premium spending and keeping this under constant review, using an evidence-based approach and working with virtual school heads where appropriate
• Monitoring the attainment and progress of pupils eligible for the pupil premium to assess the impact of the school’s use of the funding
• Reporting on the impact of pupil premium spending to the governing board on an ongoing basis
• Publishing the school’s pupil premium strategy on the school website each academic year, as required by the DfE
• Providing relevant training for staff, as necessary, on supporting disadvantaged pupils and raising attainment

Governors

The governing board is responsible for:

• Holding the headteacher to account for the implementation of the Pupil Premium strategy
• Ensuring the school is using pupil premium funding appropriately, in line with the rules set out in the conditions of grant
• Monitoring the attainment and progress of pupils eligible for the pupil premium, in conjunction with the headteacher, to assess the impact and effectiveness of the school’s use of the funding
• Monitoring whether the school is ensuring value for money in its use of the pupil premium
• Challenging the headteacher to use the pupil premium in the most effective way
• Setting the school’s ethos and values around supporting disadvantaged members of the school community

Other school staff

All school staff are responsible for:

• Implementing the Pupil Premium Strategy on a day-to-day basis
• Setting high expectations for all pupils, including those eligible for the pupil premium
• Identifying pupils whose attainment is not improving in response to interventions funded by the pupil premium, and highlighting these individuals to the senior leadership team
• Sharing insights into effective practice with other school staff

Strategies Used to Close The Gap - What does Minster C of E Primary spend its Pupil Premium on?

Research by the Sutton Trust (Education Endowment Foundation Toolkit) on Pupil Premium provision

Feedback (+8 months)

1:1 time each week with a learning coach to focus on next steps. This coach is a ‘significant adult’ in their life who takes a special and individual interest in a child’s achievement and is particularly focused on Writing. This coaching does include other areas if needed.

1:1 Tuition (+5 months)

1:1 time with a qualified teacher to focus on gaps in learning in English and Maths

Small Group Tuition (+4 months)

Group work with a qualified teacher / TA to narrow gaps in learning

Phonics (+4 months)

Smaller learning groups, 1:1 and small group tuition to bridge gaps in learning (EYFS to Yr 4)

Reducing Learning Group Sizes (+3 months)

Smaller learning groups in Literacy and Maths

Early Years Intervention (+4 months)

Teacher working directly with Pupil Premium children

Social and Emotional Learning (+4 months)

Behaviour Intervention (+4 months)

1:1 counselling, Behaviour Management and Social Skills, Nurture Groups, 1:1 and small group Mentor Support in class (targeted pupils across the whole school), Flo support for vulnerable children and their families and The Lighthouse Project for individual and family support.

Collaborative Learning (+5 months)

Pointing out the skills and practicing the skills of collaborative learning though work in the classroom and with Behaviour and Learning mentors. Work on personal self-esteem so more reticent pupils have the confidence to speak up and participate in group work and open activities with confidence (across the whole school)

Parental Involvement (+3 months)

Working with parents to encourage participation with their child’s learning progress (targeted pupils across the whole school)

Digital Technology (+4 months)

Ipad project, filming and analysis of teaching and learning, pupil use of ipad technology (Yrs 3-6)

Outdoor and Adventure Learning (+3 months)

Cost of new school minibuses, funding of trips

Sports and Arts participation (+2 months)

Additional monies to specific projects and subject budgets

After school programmes (+2 months)

Financial assistance to school clubs

The school also uses an amount of funding to pay for educational experiences, fund after school club places and resources that we believe will encourage effort and progress.

In the classrooms we have invested time and training in developing formative marking and encouraging pupil response; involving pupils in their learning path and sharing accountability with them for personal progress. Quality feedback is making a real difference to the progress of pupils across the school.

This extensive additional provision means that many more pupils now receive extra support than in previous years. This is reflected in improving results and upward trend at the end of Key Stages 1 & 2 and better Average Points Progress across the school.

Statistics

• In school we have 77 pupils who are entitled to benefit from the additional funding out of pupils 388 (20%).
• Each entitled Free School Meals pupil receives £1,345; £2,345 for Children in Care and £310 for Service Children.
• In the current year the school receives £102,185 additional funds.
• Schools results compared to other local schools and nationally can be viewed at the following web site: http://www.education.gov.uk/cgi-bin/schools/performance/school.pl?urn=118696&superview=pri

Use of Pupil Premium

To ensure the greatest impact in narrowing any attainment gaps in 2020-21 we have used the funding, along with other school resources in accordance with research on the most effective use of Pupil Premium conducted by the Sutton Trust (Education Endowment Foundation).

We have also spent other school budgets on developing many other areas of the Education Endowment Foundation Toolkit e.g. feedback, meta-cognition and self-regulation, peer tutoring and developing parental involvement.