Pupil Premium is additional funding allocated to schools from the government to tackle the barriers that financial disadvantage produces for young learners. The purpose of the funding is to narrow the achievement gap for disadvantaged (DA) students.

The funding is allocated based on the number of students who have been eligible for Free School Meals in the last six years of their education. It also includes any “looked after children” and children who have parents in the Armed Forces. Schools decide how the “Pupil Premium” allocation is spent as they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual students within their responsibility. 

Principles

• The Pupil Premium grant is a tool to tackle disadvantage in all its forms, helping to remove any barriers faced by students.
• Expectations are high for all student groups and individuals. We do not equate deprivation and challenge with low ability.
• We recognise that not all students who qualify for Free School Meals are socially disadvantaged and not all socially disadvantaged students qualify or are registered for Free School Meals. We therefore focus on the needs and levels of progress of all students.
• We ensure that all teaching and learning is designed to meet the needs of all individuals and groups. Additional support is integrated into the teaching programme.
• Research, trialling and self- evaluation are used in order to allocate funding to activities that are most likely to have an impact on achievement.
• We reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any student or group of students the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.
• The pupil premium strategy is reviewed every September and the next review is scheduled for September 2024.

Statement of intent

Our intention is that all pupils, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, make good progress and achieve high attainment across the curriculum, particularly in English Baccalaureate (EBacc) subjects.

The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve that goal. We will consider the challenges faced by vulnerable pupils, such as those who have a social worker and young carers. The strategies we have outlined in this statement are also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are defined as being disadvantaged or not.

High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach, with a focus on areas in which disadvantaged pupils require the most support. This focus is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and, at the same time, will benefit non-disadvantaged pupils in our school. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below is the intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.

Our approach will be responsive to common challenges and individual needs, rooted in robust diagnostic assessment rather than assumptions about the impact of disadvantage. The approaches we have adopted complement each other to help pupils excel. To ensure they are effective we will:

– ensure disadvantaged pupils are challenged in the work that they are set
– act early to intervene at the point the need for support is identified
– adopt a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve

Our pupil premium strategy statement below further details the challenges, intended outcomes, targeted academic and wider support strategies and a review of outcomes.

Pupil Premium statement