What is it?
The pupil premium is funding allocated to schools for the specific purpose of boosting the attainment of pupils from low-income families. Funding is based on children registered for a free school meal and children that have been in care for more than six months.
Why has it been introduced?
The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. Whilst schools are free to spend the Pupil Premium as they see fit we are required to publish on-line information about how we have used the Premium.
Our Aims and Intent:
Our intention is that all pupils, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, make good progress and achieve high attainment across all subject areas. The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve that goal, including progress for those who are already high attainers. To remove any financial obstacles that may hinder this progress.
We will consider the challenges faced by vulnerable pupils, such as those who have a social worker and young carers. The activity we have outlined in this statement is also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.
High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach, with a focus on areas in which disadvantaged pupils require the most support. This is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.
Our approach will be responsive to common challenges and individual needs, rooted in robust diagnostic assessment, not assumptions about the impact of disadvantage. The approaches we have adopted complement each other to help pupils excel. To ensure they are effective we will:
- Act early to intervene so that disadvantaged children reach their potential
- Work to raise the aspirations of all disadvantaged children
- Adopt a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged pupils ‘ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve.
- Develop the life chances of all disadvantaged children
- Enrich the lives of disadvantaged children by developing their cultural capital and wider curriculum experiences.
More information is available in our pupil premium strategy: