Pupil Premium

Pupil premium is additional funding, from the government, provided to schools for supporting pupils from low income families to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as all other children. There are three categories of children that qualify for pupil premium:

• Children who are eligible for free school meals (FSM)
• Looked after children
• Armed forces children

The Government believes that the Pupil Premium funding is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between ‘Disadvantaged children’ and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

The Government are not dictating how schools should spend this money, but are clear that schools will need to employ the strategies that they know will support their pupils to increase their attainment, and ‘narrow the gap’.

Context of School

Here at Knutton St Mary’s we have high aspirations and ambitions for our children and we believe that no child should be left behind. We strongly believe that it is not about where you come from but your passion and thirst for knowledge, and your dedication and commitment to learning that make the difference between success and failure, and we are determined to ensure that our children are given every chance to realise their full potential. Pupil premium funding represents a significant proportion of our budget and we are committed to ensuring it is spent to maximum effect. We have a desginated Pupil Premium Lead and Pupil Premium Champions in every phase.

We are determined to create a climate that ensures all children reach their full God-given potential.

Our school motto ‘Together we succeed and Shine’ reflects our high expectations of the whole school community.

Objectives of Pupil Premium Spending

When making decisions about using pupil premium funding it is important to consider the context of the school and the subsequent challenges faced.  The challenges are varied and there is no “one size fits all”.

Our key objective in using the Pupil Premium Grant is to narrow the gap between pupil groups. Historically levels of attainment have been lower for FSM (eligible for free school meals) – this is also a national trend. Through targeted interventions we are working to eliminate barriers to learning and progress. We strive to ensure that every child makes strong progress in order to reach age related expectations, or better, as they move through the school.

We have identified some key principles (outlined below) which we believe will maximize the impact of our pupil premium spending. 

Identification of Pupils

We will ensure that:

• ALL teaching staff and support staff are involved in analysis of data and identification of pupils
• ALL staff are aware of who pupil premium and vulnerable children are
• ALL pupil premium children benefit from the funding, not just those who are
• underperforming
• Underachievement at all levels is targeted (not just lower attaining pupils)
• Children’s individual needs are considered carefully so that we provide support for those children who could be doing “even better if…..”

Improving Day to Day Teaching

We will continue to ensure that all children across the school receive high quality first teaching achieved by using our pupil premium champions to:

• Set high expectations
• Address any within-school variance
• Ensure consistent implementation of the non-negotiables, e.g. marking and guided reading
• Share good practice within the school and draw on external expertise
• Provide high quality CPD
• Improve assessment through joint levelling and moderation

Increasing learning time

We will maximise the time children have to “catch up” through:

• Improving attendance and punctuality
• Providing earlier intervention (KS1 and EYFS)

Individualising support

“There’s no stigma attached to being in an intervention in this school. Everyone needs something, whatever that might be, and so they’re all getting something somewhere.”

We will ensure that the additional support we provide is effective by:

• Looking at the individual needs of each child and identifying their barriers to learning, talioring interventions to meet their needs
• Ensuring additional support staff and class teachers communicate regularly
• Providing high quality interventions
• Working with other agencies to bring in additional expertise
• Providing strong home-school links to support parents.
• To support their children’s learning within the curriculum