Publicly funded Schools and Academies in England are given Pupil Premium Grant money as additional funding to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers.
The focus of this funding is to improve outcomes for pupils who fit the following criteria:-
- Pupils Looked after
- Pupils who are eligible for free school meals or who have been eligible for free school meals at any time in the past 6 years
- Children of Services Personnel
At St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School we have high aspirations for all pupils and as our school serves an area of high deprivation, where over 40% of our pupils are eligible for the pupil premium grant, and where more families are advising us that they struggle financially, we understand the importance of enhancing the educational experience for all children. The government provides this extra funding to schools to allow them to address barriers to learning and schools can decide how the money should be spent to meet the needs of children in the school. Given the current school context, we aim to improve outcomes for all children at St Cuthbert’s and funds are allocated accordingly.
We have identified that barriers to learning at St Cuthbert’s Catholic Primary School include but are not limited to:
- Levels of literacy, communication and language starting points can be low
- Lack of extended vocabulary
- Increasing numbers of children who are not yet competent in the English language
- School is in an area of high deprivation
- Social and emotional barriers
- Poverty which include those families who are working but struggle financially (working poor)
- Local factors which include high numbers of crime and drug related problems
- Lower levels of family support to value education
Our intention is to use the PPG to address the following main objectives:
- Assessment of learning gaps and interventions to improve outcomes for children
- Ensure every child is a fluent reader by the time they leave KS1
- Provision of specialist SEN support where necessary
- Addressing resilience issues to improve attitudes towards learning and education
- Early language acquisition
- Specialist provision for children who do not have English competence
- Provision of specialist learning mentoring to address social and emotional barriers
- Additional high quality teaching to ensure outcomes for all children are in line with national
- Ensuring no child ‘misses out’ on any experience provided or feels isolated through poverty
- To harbour a love of reading and life-long learning in preparation for further education or employment in line with our ‘Bright Futures’ initiative
Our Pupil Premium Grant allocation, impact and planned spend is published on our school website. This is a DFE requirement and although the government do not dictate how the money is spent, they do insist that schools use strategies they know are successful for their own context for maximum impact. Governors of the school monitor the spend, provision and impact throughout the year.
Rigorous pupil progress meetings with leaders and teachers, ensure pupils’ specific needs are identified promptly. Progress is tracked and through moderation and evaluation, amendments are made to support the child’s learning. Supervision of both SEN and Family support is regular and follow up actions are monitored. The PPG planned spend is a working document and will be updated regularly should needs change.
For more information about Pupil Premium follow this link