Pupil Premium Strategy
Pupil Premium Strategy 2022-23
Aims and Objectives
At New Close Primary School, we believe that all our children have an equal entitlement, and should have an equal opportunity to:
Develop imagination and creativity
Acquire skills and abilities
Have a love of learning.
Background
The school receives funding from the Government to support it in trying to meet this aspiration. This is known as the Pupil Premium.
Pupil premium is additional funding, from the government, provided to schools for supporting more pupils from low income families to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as all other children. There are two areas of Pupil Premium:
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Disadvantaged Pupil Premium
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Service Pupil Premium
It is for schools to decide how the Pupil premium is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils for whom they are responsible. The Pupil Premium is allocated to schools with pupils on roll in January 2021. Schools have the freedom to spend the Premium, which is additional to the underlying schools budget, in a way they think will best support the raising of attainment for the most vulnerable pupils.
All our staff and Academy Council accept responsibility for ‘socially disadvantaged’ pupils and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within a caring environment. The targeted and strategic use of pupil premium will support us in achieving our vision.
Disadvantaged Pupil Premium
The purpose of the disadvantaged pupil premium is to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities to reach their potential. Disadvantaged pupils are defined as:
•Pupils that are known to have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any time in the last six years
•Looked After Children who are currently under the care of the Local Authority
•Children who have ceased to be looked after by a local authority in England and Wales because of adoption, a special guardianship order, a child arrangements order or a residence order
Principles
We are determined to ensure that all our children succeed and we recognise the need for and are committed to providing completely individualised interventions for set periods of time to support children.
We ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all of the pupils.
We ensure that appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups, this includes ensuring that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed.
In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged.
We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.
Pupil premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals. Limited funding and resources means that not all children receiving free school meals will be in receipt of pupil premium interventions at one time.
Service Pupil Premium
Service Pupil Premium is allocated for pupils who fall into one of the following categories:
•Pupils who have a parent who is currently serving in the regular armed forces
•Pupils who have been registered as a ‘service child’ in the school census at any point in the last six years
•Pupils who have a parent that died whilst serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme
•Pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full time reserve service
The purpose of the Service Pupil Premium is:
•To offer mainly pastoral support during challenging times and to help mitigate the negative impact on service children of family mobility or parental deployment.
•Mobility is when a service family is posted from one location to another, including overseas and within the UK.
•Deployment is when a service person is serving away from home for a period of time. This could be a 6 to 9 month tour of duty, a training course or an exercise which could last for a few weeks
Provision
The range of provision the staff and Academy Councillors consider making for the disadvantage and service group include:
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Providing 1-1 support or small group work focused on overcoming gaps in learning;
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Additional teaching and learning opportunities provided through learning mentors, trained TAs or additional members of staff;
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The majority of our work through the pupil premium will be aimed at accelerating progress moving children to at least age related expectations;
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In addition, the school recognises that the wider curriculum supports and enriches children’s development in communication, English and maths, and therefore funding will also be allocated to enable children to participate fully and actively in wider and extra-curricular activities;
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Pupil premium resources may also be used to target able children on Free School Meals to achieve their potential;
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Prompt and efficient administration, to include the robust tracking of pupil transfer records; children from service families are welcomed to the school with a thorough induction programme upon arrival to identify quickly the children’s learning needs and plan appropriate teaching provision;
Reporting
It will be the responsibility of the Headteacher, or a delegated member of staff, to report to the Governors on:
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the progress made towards narrowing the gap, for socially disadvantaged pupils and service;
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an outline of the provision that was made since the last meeting.
An evaluation of the cost effectiveness and impact of the provision in terms of the progress made by the pupils receiving a particular provision.
Parents will receive information as to the progress of pupils through personal information sent home on individual education plans and through reporting of assessment results at the end of the academic year.
The Academy Council of the school will ensure that there is an annual statement to parents on how the Pupil Premium funding has been used to address the issue of ‘narrowing the gap’, for socially disadvantaged pupils. This task will be carried out within the requirements published by the Department for Education.
Further information can be found on the link below:
Pupil Premium and Conditions of Grant 2021-22
November 2022