Pupil Premium
The Pupil Premium is an allocation of additional funding provided to schools to support specific groups of children who are at risk of underachieving at school.
As with every child in our care, a child who is considered to be ‘socially disadvantaged’ is valued, respected and entitled to develop to his/her potential, irrespective of need. At Sneinton C of E Primary School, we want all pupils to flourish, regardless of starting point, equipping them to be life long learners through a world class education.
Background
The pupil premium is a new Government initiative that targets extra money at pupils from deprived backgrounds, which research shows underachieve compared to their non-deprived peers. The premium is provided in order to support these pupils in reaching their potential.
The Government have used pupils entitled to Free School meals as an indicator for deprivation, and have deployed a fixed amount of money to schools per pupil, based on the number of pupils registered for Free School meals. At school we will use the indicator of those eligible for Free School meals as an element of our identification of target children to ‘narrow the gap’ regarding attainment.
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’. Schools will be accountable for narrowing the gap, and there is a planned reform to the school performance tables to include new measures that show the attainment to pupils who receive the pupil premium compare with their peers.
Provision
In order to meet the above requirements, the Governing Body will ensure that provision is made which secures the teaching and learning opportunities that meet the needs of all pupils.
As part of the additional provision made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups, the Governors of the school will ensure that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed through termly pupil progress meetings.
In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, the Governors of the school recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged.
The Governors also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. The Governors reserve the right to allocated the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil of groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.
The range of provision:
- Facilitating pupils’ access to education
- Facilitating pupils’ access to the curriculum
- Additional teaching and learning opportunities
- Alternative support and intervention, arranged through a pupil’s parents, where funds are available after securing the school’s own programme.
The SENCO, in conjunction with the Headteacher, will maintain an on-going programme of support for socially disadvantaged pupils, which will be subject to the oversight of the Governors’ and will be regularly reported on.
Reporting
It will be the responsibility of the Headteacher to produce a termly report for the Governor’s 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 main Governing Body to ensure and outline of the school’s progress towards ‘narrowing the gap’ for socially disadvantaged pupils is given to the school’s Governors on a termly basis.
The governing body will consider the information provided from the Committee 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.
The Governors will ensure that there is an annual statement to the parents on how the Pupil Premium funding has been used to address the issue of ‘narrowing the gap’ for socially disadvantaged pupils. This task will be carried out within the requirements published by the Department of Education.
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. Targets will be identified and evaluated annually and included in the School Development Plan.
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
- 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 valued as full members of the school community; developing confident and independent learners.