Pupil Premium

The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. 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. However, the school will be held accountable for how they have used the additional funding to support pupils from low-income families. New measures are included in the performance tables that will capture the achievement of those disadvantaged pupils covered by the Pupil Premium.

The Pupil Premium is allocated to children from low-income families who are currently known to be eligible for FSM in both mainstream and non-mainstream settings and children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months.

INTENT

At Whitegate CE Primary School, we aim to ensure that all disadvantaged pupils achieve in line with other pupils and that all pupils make the best progress they can. We realise that barriers to learning are as individual as the children. Research - The EEF Guide to Supporting School Planning: A Tiered Approach (updated April 2022) - shows that the most effective strategy for narrowing the attainment gap of disadvantaged pupils is Quality First Teaching.  This is supported by targeted academic support and further strategies that take into account factors such as attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support.

IMPLEMENTATION

Allocation of Pupil Premium budget spending follows a rigorous, ‘plan, do, review’ cycle.  Ongoing auditing of pupil achievement and barriers to learning occur through discussions with parents, children and school staff, pupil progress meetings and assessment cycles.  Barriers to learning may be addressed through strategies such as: continuing professional development for teachers to improve whole class teaching, the allocation of adults to cohorts and individuals, individual and small group interventions, pastoral support, advice and support from external agencies, or actions to support specific issues such as transport or bereavement.

IMPACT

With a range of strategies being implemented to ensure that all disadvantaged pupils achieve, a wide range of measures inform our knowledge of pupils’ progress and inform our future practice.  For example: pupil voice; formative and summative assessments; quantitative and qualitative data.  The Pupil Premium strategy is reviewed termly; interventions and other programmes of support are evaluated at the end of their cycles. Regular pupil progress meetings occur and Governors are informed at Curriculum meetings and Pupil Premium Governors’ meetings.

USING THE PUPIL PREMIUM

It is up to school leaders to decide how to spend the Pupil Premium. This is because school leaders are best placed to assess their pupils’ needs. Leaders may provide support for a range of issues. For example:

• support for resilience, mental health and well-being including anxiety, bereavement and sleep issues
• support for pupils with additional and complex health needs
• supporting vulnerable children and keeping children safe

Tiered model and ‘menu of approaches’

Evidence suggests that Pupil Premium spending is most effective (in normal circumstances) when schools use a tiered model, targeting spending across 3 areas: high quality teaching, targeted academic support and wider strategies.   Within each area, there are a range of approaches that can be chosen based on identified need(s). 

Teaching

Schools arrange training and professional development for all their staff to improve the impact of teaching and learning for pupils.

Academic support

Schools decide on the main issues stopping their pupils from succeeding at school and use the Pupil Premium to finance targeted support.

NON ELIGIBLE PUPILS

Pupil Premium does not have to be spent so it solely benefits eligible pupils. For example, it can be spent on pupils who do not get free school meals but:

• have or have had a social worker
• act as a carer

The Department for Education (DfE) guidance refers to recommendations in the EEF Pupil Premium Guide which states that alongside targeted academic programmes, schools should focus on improving teaching quality and wider strategies supporting readiness to learn: improving these areas will inevitably benefit non-eligible pupils as well.

WIDER STRATEGIES

This may include non-academic use of the Pupil Premium such as:

• supporting pupils’ social, emotional and behavioural needs
• supporting attendance
• school breakfast clubs and extra-curricular activities
• help with the cost of educational trips or visits up to a maximum of 10% of the total fund
• speech and language support strategies

Using the Pupil Premium in this way helps to:

• increase pupils’ confidence and resilience
• encourage pupils to be more aspirational
• benefit non-eligible pupils

DISADVANTAGED PUPILS WITH HIGH ATTAINMENT

Research shows that the most academically able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are also at risk of under-performing.

ACCOUNTIBILITY

Schools are accountable for how they spend Pupil Premium funding so there is clarity for parents and guardians and governing bodies can see evidence-based practice so they can consider the rationale behind all Pupil Premium-related decisions.

PUPIL PREMIUM STRATEGY STATEMENT

At Whitegate CE Primary School, we publish an annual Pupil Premium strategy statement which outlines how we choose to use Pupil Premium funding. The statement is neither intended to be an accounting tool or to monitor within-class or within-school attainment gaps.

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