Pupil Premium

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Pupil Premium

The Pupil Premium is allocated to Local Authorities and Schools with children on roll who are known to have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) at anytime in the last six years. Each of these children currently attracts a sum of £1345. Schools will have the freedom to spend the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) which is an additional part of the underlying budget, in ways that they think will best support the raising of attainment for the most vulnerable children.

The majority of Birklands Primary School’s catchment live in areas classed as being one of the 10% most deprived area in England (based on IMD rankings).

Research indicates that common barriers for learning for disadvantaged children can be: poor language and communications skills, lack of confidence and low self-esteem, low literacy and numeracy skills, less support at home, attendance and punctuality issues, complex behavioural issues. Alongside this there may be more complex family situations that prevent children from flourishing.

All teaching staff at Birklands are involved in the analysis of data and have an awareness of those in receipt of additional funding via the pupil premium strategy.

Our key principles when implementing this strategy are:

We ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all the pupils.

We 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.

We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

Pupil premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals. Limited funding and resources means that not all children receiving free school meals will be in receipt of pupil premium interventions at one time.

Ultimate Objectives:

To narrow the attainment gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils nationally and also within internal school data.

For all disadvantaged pupils in school to at least meet nationally expected progress rates in order to reach Age Related Expectation at the end of Year 6 and thus achieve GCSEs in English and Maths.

Achieving these Objectives:

Employ an additional teaching assistant within key stage one.

Deploy teaching assistants to year groups with higher percentage of pupil premium children improving opportunities for effective teaching and accelerating progress.

Allocate a ‘Catch Up’ Teacher to upper key stage 2 - providing small group work with an experienced teacher focussed on overcoming gaps in learning.

1-1 support via the catch-up teacher or identified teaching assistant.

Access to ELSA and/or Peace of Mind counselling.

Pay for all activities, educational visits and residentials. Ensuring children have first-hand experiences to use in their learning in the classroom.

Access professional music tuition as part of the curriculum.

Fund those who wish to access 1:1 music tuition.

Behaviour and nurture support during lunchtimes by providing activities to engage and promote Birklands values and thus enhance learning.