Pupil premium

 

Introduced in 2011, the pupil premium is a sum of money given to schools each year by the Government to improve the attainment of children from families who are eligible for free school meals. Your child will qualify for the pupil premium fund if they have received free school meals at some point over the last 6 years.

 

This gives us a great opportunity to support your child in many different ways.

 

If your child qualifies for the Pupil premium fund, you will have received a letter asking for suggestions for how you think the fund could support your child. A copy of this letter can be found below. Please consider your child’s strengths and the things they find difficult when considering support. They may have a sporting talent that we can help promote, a musical talent that you wish they could follow or it may be that you need help with trips and uniform.

 

In addition to this, we are also offering parents support with school uniform, trips, clubs etc.

 

If you have any suggestions or ideas of how we can support your child, please contact Miss Turnell who is the Pupil premium co-ordinator via the school office or complete the slip on the letter below.

 

Evaluation of the Pupil Premium Strategy for 2019-20

 

1.   One to one and small group tuition delivered by teachers & learning support assistants within and beyond the school day with a continued focus on maths.

Impact: There were 5 children in Y6 who were entitled to pupil premium, 3 of these children arrived at the school in Y5. At the end of March, when school closed, 4 of the 5 children were working at the expected standard in reading, writing and maths.  All children performed well and made good progress in line with their peers who started at the same starting points.

Across all year groups, teaching assistants were deployed to use afternoons to undertake small interventions based on the morning work and gaps in the learning giving PP children a priority. The TAs were also responsible for getting the children to undertake the quizzes in Accelerated Reader and moving the children onto the next book, encouraging and praising to raise self-esteem.

 

2. Support and intervention including continued advice, training and specialist teacher sessions from the Specialist Teaching Service and educational psychologist (to include bespoke assessments and therapies based on individual need)

Impact: assessments, groups, advice and support have enabled the school to improve the personalisation of learning for individuals. The school benefits greatly from working with Partners in Psychology who have supported our children and families brilliantly. This year, educational psychologists have supported two children with behavioral support and helped staff to meet their emotional needs. They have also supported one child in year 6 with transition to secondary school and provided recommendations to ensure a smooth transition. The specialist teaching service have also supported individual children and provided guidance to staff to help children with dyslexic tendencies. Their advice and guidance have enabled pupils to move forward at a faster rate and increase confidence.

 

4. Continued employment of school social worker (Faith in Families) to support the well-being of pupils & their families

Impact: Faith in Families is continuing to offer a great support to children in school who may be struggling with anxiety or who would just benefit from having someone to talk to.

 Pupils with significant barriers to learning have really benefited from this service. This year, 15 children have worked with Faith in Families and 4 of these children were Pupil Premium whilst 6 children have a special educational need. It has been highly valued by staff, pupils and parents. Alongside this, Faith in Families were also able to support children in small groups and help with a variety of social and emotional needs.

 

5. Purchase of resources to support learning.

Impact: We have continued to provide up-to-date fiction books to keep our children motivated with reading and give them the best choice to continue their love of reading. We also continue to give the children access to new APPs on the iPads (new hardware purchased) and use these to improve our learning and keep learning fun.

 

7. Run lunchtime club to support children socially and emotionally at lunchtimes.

Impact: Pyramid club has continued this year to help children at lunchtimes who may need a little bit of extra support. All children are invited to attend the club over the year and some children have an open invitation if it is felt that they would benefit from it. It helps children to play nicely, take turns and share and is particularly good for children who may find the playground overwhelming.

 

8. Engaging parents further to support financially. Parents will be given their own budget to influence spending. This may be used for: school clubs, musical instrument lessons, activities, transport, trips, visitors to school and Y6 residential for eligible families up to £200 per child.

Impact: This year, parents of PP pupils have benefitted from financial support including access to a broader range of enrichment activities such as before/after school clubs, musical instrument tuition, school uniform, school trips and the Y6 residential.

Teachers have worked hard to find out the interests of individual children and try to direct children and parents towards clubs that may be of interest to them. This has meant that the PP fund can be spent in ways that will meet individual’s needs, talents and interests.

 

9. Set up a homework club following requests from parents.

Impact: Homework club began in October for 14 pupil premium children from EYFS to Year 6. It has started from just 30 minutes once a week but following positive feedback, we hope that this can extend next year to longer sessions and more than once a week.