Downfield Primary School

Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium Funding

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 three categories of children that qualify for pupil premium:

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

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 that are known to have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any time in the last six years. 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.

At Downfield Primary all our staff and governors understand that we have pupils who are socially disadvantaged and we 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.

Principles

• We seek to ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all of the pupils;
• We seek to 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
• Pupil premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals.

Provision

The range of provision the staff and Governors consider making for this group include:

• Reducing class sizes thus improving opportunities for effective teaching and accelerating progress;
• Providing 1-1 and small group work with an experienced teacher focused on overcoming gaps in learning;
• Additional teaching and learning opportunities provided through key workers, trained TAs or external agencies;
• The majority of our work through the pupil premium will be aimed at accelerating progress moving children to at least age related expectations across all areas of the curriculum
• In addition, the school recognises that the wider curriculum supports and enriches children’s development across the curriculum, and therefore funding will also be allocated to enable children to participate fully and actively in wider and extra-curricular activities
• Pupil premium resources may also be used to target able children on Free School Meals to achieve greater depth

Summary of barriers to learning for disadvantaged pupils at Downfield Primary school

In order to close attainment gaps between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils, possible barriers to learning are identified and then removed through strategic use of pupil premium funding. The impact on closing attainment gaps is evaluated to measure the success of each action. Many barriers to learning exist for disadvantaged pupils at Downfield Primary School, which can be summarised as follows:

• Attendance
• Language skills
• Literacy and numeracy skills
• Parental support
• Emotional / Mental Health well-being
• Narrow experience of life outside school

Monitoring of interventions and support

Each aspect provided by the school will be monitored by the subject / pastoral lead, SENCo or member of the SLT to ensure a positive impact has occurred.

Special Educational Needs

Some children require additional support within the school environment in order to benefit to the same degree as others, particularly children with special educational needs.

Approaches to bring about improvement: Approaches will follow those detailed in our Policy for SEND. Class teachers, will be supported by the SENCO in devising strategies, agreeing interventions and actions, setting targets appropriate to the needs of the pupils, and advising on quality resources and materials for use with pupils with special educational needs, and on the effective use of personnel in the classroom.

DESIRED IMPACT

• The early identification of barriers to learning becomes an embedded part of the whole school vision.
• Teachers and Learning Support Assistants are used effectively to meet the needs of pupils at risk of underachieving in order to accelerate progress in reading comprehension and writing.
• Staff training ensures a deeper understanding of the way pupils develop reading and comprehension skills leading to increased challenge in reading for pupils and higher standards.
• Pupils in target groups show increased independence and are motivated and engaged learners, with high self-esteem.
• The gap between children eligible for Pupil Premium and their peers is closing, with a particular focus on attainment and progress in reading and writing.
• Children can confidently and independently use a range of approaches to spell successfully across the curriculum whilst also broadening their vocabulary range.
• School leaders have a genuine and unrelenting commitment to equity of provision.
• Positive and proactive parental support for learning.

 How will we evaluate the use our funding?

Any decisions about how to spend our Pupil Premium are based on the analysis of performance information. Pupils who are eligible for the Pupil Premium are identified on our school tracking systems – Classroom Monitor / AM7. This allows us to filter information relating to their attainment and progress throughout the year. This data informs our Provision Mapping; it is reported to the Headteacher and SENCO by class teachers and is published by report to governors. Three termly cycles of intervention take place each year, and data is monitored and evaluated at the beginning and end of each cycle to ensure that all target pupils are making progress and, if not, why not and the action we will take in response. When evaluating the achievement of pupils in relation to our spending of the Pupil Premium, we consider:

• How well gaps are narrowing between the performances of different groups of pupils in the school and compared to all pupils nationally and
• How well pupils make progress relative to their starting points

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