Pupil Premium
Overview
Figures show that pupils who are eligible for free school meals (FSM) underachieve considerably compared with their non-FSM peers at every key stage. The Government believes it is right that additional funds are available to give the poorest children who achieve less well a better start in life. The Pupil Premium uses resources from outside the Schools Budget and intends to address the current inequalities by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.
Pupil Premium is a grant allocated to schools to support socially disadvantaged pupils. Pupil premium is not allocated to individual students. It is not an individual entitlement. The number of pupils qualifying for Free School Meals (FSM) is an indicator used by the government to allocate the funding to schools. In 2012-13 the Pupil Premium indicator of need was widen to include any pupil who had been eligible for FSM at any point in the last six years (known as the Ever 6 FSM measure, more recently as ‘disadvantaged’).
In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged. Equally we recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. The introduction of Universal Free School Meals for Infants has further complicated this situation, as a number of parents who would have been eligible before the introduction of the UFSM no longer complete the paperwork or declare their eligibility thus leading to a reduction in Pupil Premium Numbers.
The school has the responsibility for allocating the Pupil Premium funding to support pupils or groups of pupils legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged. We have to set our own criteria for how the money is best allocated in order to meet the needs of the greatest number of disadvantaged pupils. Our priority in the academic year is focussed on ‘narrowing the gap’ for those pupils not on track to achieve Level 2 in KS1 and Level 4 at the end of Key Stage 2.
We are accountable for how we have used the additional funding to support students and we are required to publish online information about how we have used the Pupil Premium, in order to ensure that parents and others are made fully aware of the attainment of pupils covered by the Premium and the extra support that they receive.
We work to ensure that the teaching and learning opportunities afforded by the pupil premium funding meet the largest possible number of pupils in order to ensure the maximum benefit.
To maximise the benefit our pupils’ gain from the limited resources available to us we first assess the needs of all vulnerable groups with the school. Pupil premium funding like any other funding is then allocated to those who are eligible for it based on priority of need. It is used to support classes, groups or individuals based on the careful analysis of pupil progress tracking, identified special educational needs (SEN) or social need. It is also used to support more able children for whom deprivation is preventing them from realizing their full potential.
Limited funding and resources means that not all children receiving free school meals will be in receipt of pupil premium interventions at any one time, but all pupils who are eligible will receive benefits derived from the allocation of pupil premium either direct or indirect to support their learning. It will be for the school to decide how the Pupil Premium is spent since we are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within our responsibility.
Objectives
At Oriel Academy, the Pupil Premium will be used to provide additional educational support to improve the progress and to raise the standard of achievement for deprived children who are eligible or have been eligible in the last 6 years for Free School Meals, children looked after and FSM pupils in non-mainstream settings. It also includes pupils eligible for the service Premium (SP).
The funding will be used to narrow and close the gap between the achievement of these pupils and their peers (Others).
Outcomes
- We will ensure that these pupils are treated equally and as favourably as others and that the additional funding is used well to address the challenges they face.
- The school will use the additional funding to promote the achievement and progress of all entitled pupils.
- Through wise use of this additional funding we are fully committed to ensuring that the individual needs of each entitled child are met.
Where funding is allocated to an intervention it is done so using two considerations:
- a ratio that reflects the proportion of pupils within that group who fall under the definition of deprivation (i.e. if 1/3 of the pupils in an intervention would be eligible then up to 1/3 of the funding for that group may be allocated from PP).
- the proportion of the total population of eligible children the funding that any one intervention is reaching (so no small group intervention is disproportionately funded from PP at the expense of interventions that reach higher numbers).
Provision
The range of provision is designed to:
- Facilitate pupils’ access to education
- Facilitate pupils’ access to the curriculum
- Provide additional teaching and learning opportunities
To do this the strategies used by the school include providing opportunities for small group work with an experienced member of staff focused on overcoming learning barriers and closing gaps in learning, 1-1 support, additional teaching and learning opportunities provided by trained staff or external agencies. Enable targeted pupils to access appropriate extracurricular provision to ensure they receive a broad entitlement to promote attainment and progress across the full curriculum.
All our work through the pupil premium is aimed at accelerating progress moving children to at least age related expectations and to reduce the attainment and progress gap between disadvantaged children and ‘others’.
The Pupil premium can also be used to enable pupils to access the wider curriculum including providing support for:
- School Uniform
- Name Tags
- PE KIT
- School Bag
- Stationery/Equipment
- Apps/Kindle or IT programmes
- Travel to School Sports
- Sports Equipment
- Bus Passes
- Extended Activities
- Theatre Visits
- Educational Visits
- Residential Visits
- Breakfast Club
- Healthy Snacks
- School Lunch
- Water
- Study Club Snacks
- Reading Clubs
- Musical Instruments
- Transport
- Homework Costs
- Ingredients for Cookery
- Enrichment days e.g. World Book Day
Reporting
It will be the responsibility of the SENCO/assessment leader/learning mentors, to produce a termly report for the Local Area Board on:
- The progress made towards narrowing the gap, by year group, for socially disadvantaged pupils.
- An outline of the provision that was made during the term since the last meeting.
- An evaluation of the cost effectiveness, in terms of the progress made by the pupils receiving a particular provision, when compared with other forms of support.
It will be the responsibility of the Local Area Board to monitor the school’s progress towards ‘narrowing the gap’ for socially disadvantaged pupils. A report is given to the school’s Local Area Board on a termly basis (reporting against the criteria below). The Local Area Board body will consider the information provided in the light of the data relating to the progress of the school’s socially disadvantaged pupils in conjunction with the revised schools’ league tables and information provided in RAISE online. Our SEN / Child protection Governor also oversees Pupil Premium and Prevent (Radicalisation).
It has been a legal requirement since 2012 to publish an annual report to parents providing information on how the Pupil Premium is spent and its impact. Our annual report (a copy can be found on our website) includes progress and attainment statistics, the number of eligible pupils entitled to benefit from the additional funding and the amount the school receives per annum (including the current year). The annual report is signed off by our local Area Board and Trust.
Success Criteria
The evaluation of this policy is based on how quickly the school can ‘narrow the gap’ between socially disadvantaged pupils and their peers. The success criteria for the Pupil Premium Policy are:
Early intervention and support for socially disadvantaged children;
The vast majority of socially disadvantaged children will meet their individual targets;
Developing effective parental / pupil / school support;
Having an effective system for identifying, assessing and monitoring pupils;
Having a whole-school approach;
Create a positive school atmosphere in which pupils’ differences are recognised and all pupils are valued as full members of the school community and developing confident and independent learners ready for the next phase of their education.