The Pupil Premium Grant
Background to Pupil Premium Funding
The pupil premium is a government initiative that aims to address the current underlying inequality between the academic achievements of pupils who are entitled to Free School Meals, in local Authority Care, have been adopted from care (Pupil Premium Plus) have parents in the armed forces or have received Free School Meals in one or more of the previous 6 years (Ever 6) deprived backgrounds. Research shows that pupils from the backgrounds listed underachieve compared to their peers. The premium is provided to enable these pupils to be supported to reach their potential. This fixed amount of money provided by the Government is expected to increase every year for the course of this current Parliament. Great Whelnetham will be using the indicator of those eligible for FSM as well as identified vulnerable groups as our target children to ‘close the gap’ regarding attainment.
Our Approach
Money has been ring-fenced and used to benefit all pupil premium pupils. We have established clear lines of responsibility with our Executive Headteacher and governors taking responsibility for Pupil Premium.
At Great Whelnetham we plan carefully to ensure that this additional funding has been spent to maximum effect. This has meant making informed decisions about our spending such as:
- Ensuring that spending is directly linked to gaps in attainment;
- Making use of our own data to expand existing interventions;
- Making sure there is good or outstanding teaching on a day to day basis;
- Making use of research when evaluating interventions and considering the implementation of new interventions.
All staff are aware of areas for development in the school in terms of subjects, year groups and they know which children are focus children.
Money is used to benefit all pupil premium children and supports higher as well as lower ability children by extending provision on offer.
We have revised our assessment and monitoring systems to support improvement in the quality of teaching and interventions in order to maximise impact.
All members of staff, governors and teaching assistants accept responsibility for our pupils and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within the school environment. Great Whelnetham Primary is committed to ‘Narrowing the Gap’ between vulnerable pupils and the pupil premium forms a vital part of that process. The governors reserve the right to allocate the pupil premium funding to support any pupils or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.
Reporting Pupil Premium
It is the responsibility of the governors to explain pupil premium expenditure to parents in the form of an annual statement. There is no set format for the report of pupil premium. The School will publish the report online. These reports aim to detail information on how Pupil Premium has been used within our school. This report will detail the attainment and progress of pupils who are covered by the premium and the intervention that has been supported by the additional funding. Reports will also detail the progress made towards narrowing the gap and this will be supported by reported data and academic progress.
Reporting to Parents
Parents will be able to obtain information on the pupil premium via the schools’ website as well as at Pupil Progress meeting termly.