Introduction
The pupil premium is additional funding allocated to schools to help support disadvantaged pupils, closing the attainment gap between them and their peers. At St. Stephen’s CE Primary School Pupil Premium is funding allocated to pupils who are currently eligible for free school meals and who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years. The funding has contributed to a wide range of resources designed to maximise pupil potential in every possible way, e.g. extra teachers and intervention in core subjects, strong inclusion team (speech and language therapists, PSA, and education psychologists), and opportunities for extended school activities (boosters/clubs).
Principles
All members of staff and governors accept responsibility for ‘socially disadvantaged’ pupils and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within a caring environment. As with every child in our care, a child who is considered to be ‘socially disadvantaged’ is valued, respected and entitled to develop his/her full potential, irrespective of need
Background
The pupil premium targets extra funding for pupils from deprived backgrounds. Research shows these students underachieve compared to their non-deprived peers. The premium is provided in order to support these pupils to reach their potential.
The Government have used pupils entitled to free school meals, children of service personnel and children looked after as an indicator for deprivation and have deployed a fixed amount of money to schools per pupil, based upon the number registered for FSM. At St. Stephen’s CE Primary, we will be using the indicator of those eligible for FSM as our target children to ‘narrow the gap’ regarding attainment and progress.
The Government have not dictated to schools how to spend this money, but are clear that schools will need to employ strategies that they know will support these students to increase their attainment and narrow the gap. All schools are required to report on the amount of funding received in the current financial year and details of how it is intended that the allocation will be spent. Schools are also required to report on details of how the previous academic year’s allocation was spent, and the effect of this expenditure on the educational attainment of those pupils at the school in respect of whom grant funding was allocated.
Summary of barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at the school
The majority of pupil premium children come into school below national expectations in most areas of the curriculum especially in the areas of understanding, speaking, self-confidence and awareness, reading, numbers, the world, technology and expressive arts and design. This low base line leads to the importance of additional support throughout the school to narrow the gap. Many of our pupil premium children also lack confidence and resilience.
We measure the impact of pupil premium by closely monitoring our intervention programmes, through learning walks, pupil progress meetings, data and work scrutiny. We monitor the progress of these children and provide support if it is required. These children have priority access to these interventions and the impact of this will be reviewed termly. Pupils attainment and progress will be discussed with governors and the overall impact will be evaluated in the summer / autumn term.
Details of our 2023-24 allocation and the intended impact of its expenditure can be viewed below. This document also includes an evaluation of the 2022-23 statement.
Catch-up Premium
Following the 2020 lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, schools have received an additional amount of money to provide catch-up support for those pupils that require it. At St. Stephen’s CE Primary School, in order to utilise this additional funding in the best possible way, we have considered closely the research and advice put forward by the EEF and used timely assessments of both children’s academic and personal development needs to inform our decisions. The Catch-up Premium statement below gives details of the funding which we have received and outlines our intentional spend with a rationale accompanying each decision.
