Pupil premium information

Please click on the document to view the Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2020-21

More information can be found on the gov.uk website : Pupil Premium information for schools and Alternative provision settings

What is the Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium is an amount of money allocated to disadvantaged children in order to close the achievement gap.

Purpose of Pupil Premium Funding

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 Pupil Premium and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

Three categories of pupils are eligible:

• Pupils recorded as ‘ever 6 FSM’ (pupils who are or have been eligible for FSM at any point during their 6 years of primary school education)
• Looked After Children and those children who have been adopted from care
• Children of Service Personnel

Pupils who are eligible for the pupil premium need to be aged 4 and over, in year groups to year 11 in a maintained school.

Pupil Premium is allocated straight to our school and it is clearly identifiable. Schools are free to spend the Pupil Premium as they feel is appropriate. The government thinks that schools are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for individual pupils within their responsibility. However all schools will be held accountable for how they have used additional funding to support pupils from low-income families and in care. The schools must report and publicise annually how the money has been spent and what the impact has been made on the achievements of the pupils.

School Aims

Our mission is to provide an innovative, safe and caring learning environment where children leave us well prepared for life as global citizens in an ever changing modern world.

At Whitchurch we are unapologetic about finding new and better ways to deliver an outstanding learning experience.

To do this our aims are to:

1. Provide children with high quality learning opportunities based on a broad and balanced curriculum
2. Provide a diverse range of opportunities such that children are resilient in the face of challenge and are confident enough to take risks
3. Nurture talent so that children and staff can be the best they can be
4. Be uncompromising in our aspirations for our children to achieve individual success
5. Ensure the mental health & well-being of our staff and children
6. Robustly govern the school and work collaboratively with all stakeholders
7.To be ready for life as global citizens,

Key Priorities of Pupil Premium Funding

• To raise the attainment and progress of pupils eligible for Pupil Premium funding so that their performance compares favourably with non-Pupil Premium peers.
• Address any inequalities in opportunity for pupils from low-income families and provide a wide range of experience for these pupils.

The targeted and strategic use of Pupil Premium funding will support us in achieving our aims.

Accountability

The Government believes that head teachers and school leaders should decide how to use the Pupil Premium. They are held accountable for the decisions they make through:

• the performance tables which show the performance of disadvantaged pupils compared with their peers.
• the new Ofsted inspection framework, under which inspectors focus on the attainment of pupil groups, in particular those who attract the Pupil Premium.
• the reports on Pupil Premium that schools are required to publish online.

Guiding principles for the allocation of resources at Whitchurch Primary School

• We ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all of our pupils
• Allocation of Pupil Premium funding will in the first instance be targeted towards raising the achievement of FSM Children, those in or adopted from care or Service Children.
• We reserve the right, however, to allocate Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has identified as being in need of intervention and support.
• Pupil Premium funding will be allocated following an analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals. This means that not all children who attract the Pupil Premium funding will be in receipt of Pupil Premium interventions at any one time.
• Any opportunity organised to support or enhance pupils’ learning (e.g. residential visits, trips, school visitors, special events etc.) will be supplemented by the Pupil Premium funding on the basis of the proportion of children attracting the funding within the relevant class or year group.

Principles

• We ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all pupils.
• We ensure that appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups. This specifically includes ensuring that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are addressed.
• In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who are eligible for free school meals, (or have been eligible in the last 6 years) are socially disadvantaged.
• We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We therefore allocate Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils that the school has been legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

Pupil Premium funding will be allocated following annual needs analyses which will identify priority classes and groups. Teacher, parents and children will all be consulted about the child’s needs at the start of the academic year.

Provision

Outstanding teaching and learning is paramount to the progress of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. This remains a consistent and relentless focus. We have a range of provision in place to support children who belong to vulnerable groups. Targeted intervention and support strategies are deployed in order to:

• Improve levels of attainment and progress;
• Close attainment gaps relative to school averages;
• Enhance reading, writing, mathematics and communication skills;
• Engage and develop learning through Assertive Mentoring – providing small group work with an experienced teacher focussed on overcoming gaps in learning in Writing and Maths;
• 1:1 support or small group support;
• Additional teaching and learning opportunities provided by the Pupil Premium teachers and Learning Mentors;
• Provide extensive enrichment activities that broaden the curriculum;
• Provide pupils with skills to be enable them to build their emotional resilience and support pupils in becoming aspirational, confident and successful learners;

All our work funded by the Pupil Premium will be aimed at accelerating progress so that the vast majority of children leave Whitchurch at, or above, the national expectations. We also aim for every child to make expected or better progress.

Reporting

The Headteacher in consultation with the Pupil Manager will produce annual reports for the Governors curriculum committee and the school website on:

• The progress made towards closing the gap, by year group, for the FSM and Ever 6 children; and an outline of the provision.

Strategic spending of the Pupil premium grant will ensure that pupils receive support and intervention tailored to their needs. Pupils eligible for Pupil Premium support are clearly identified across all year groups.

The school will ensure that there is an annual statement on how the Pupil Premium funding has been used to address the issue of ‘closing the gap’, for FSM and Ever 6 children. This statement will be published on the schools website.

 

More information can be found on the gov.uk website : Pupil Premium information for schools and Alternative provision settings