Pupil Premium

 
Pupil Premium is a sum of money allocated to schools to close the attainment gap between those eligible for free school meals and their wealthier peers.
 
Disadvantaged pupils are pupils that have been recorded as eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last six years (Ever 6 FSM) or pupils in care who have been continuously looked after for more than six months by the local authority.
 

What is Pupil Premium?

 

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 who have registered for a free school meal at any point in the last 6 years, children who are in care or adopted, and children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces.

 It is up to schools to decide how the Pupil Premium is spent, since they are best placed to assess what their pupils need in terms of additional provision. However, schools are accountable for the Pupil Premium and details of how the money is spent must be published on the school’s website.

Read more about free school meals in our fact sheet; Can we "count you in?"

When you apply for free school meals, you will also allow your school to receive Pupil Premium - extra money to support children from families on lower incomes, please apply for free school meals.

Our Philosophy

 

At Barrington C of E Primary School we value the abilities and achievements of all our pupils, and are committed to providing each pupil with the best possible environment for learning. We recognise that each child is unique and will have different needs, which may well vary throughout their time in the school. We have planned to spend our Pupil Premium funding to try to give them all the support that they need to fulfil their potential. We believe in maximising the use of the pupil premium grant (PPG) by utilising a long-term strategy aligned to the SDP. This enables us to implement a blend of short, medium and long-term interventions, and align pupil premium use with wider school improvements and improving readiness to learn.

Overcoming barriers to learning is central to our approach. We understand that needs and costs will differ depending on the barriers to learning being addressed. As such, we do not automatically allocate personal budgets per pupil in receipt of the PPG. Instead, we identify the barrier to be addressed and the interventions required, whether in small groups, large groups, the whole school or as individuals, and allocate a budget accordingly. 

The member of staff with responsibility for overseeing our pupil premium spending and impact is Gill Davies and our pupil premium governor is Nicky Rushton.

 

Our Priorities

Setting priorities is key to maximising the use of the PPG. Our priorities are as follows:

  • Ensuring ‘outstanding’ teaching in every class
  • Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers
  • Providing targeted academic support for pupils who are not making the expected progress
  • Addressing non-academic barriers to attainment such as mental well-being, engagement with learning,  attendance and behaviour
  • To increase the cultural capital of pupil premium children and broaden their experiences

Our Implementation Process 

We believe in selecting a small number of priorities and giving them the best chance of success. We also believe in evidence-based interventions and learning from our experiences, which is why we utilise annual light-touch reviews to ensure our approach is effective and we can cease or amend interventions that are not having the intended impact.

 

Our Tiered Approach

To prioritise spending, we have adopted a tiered approach to define our priorities and ensure balance. Our tiered approach comprises three categories:

  1. Teaching (including professional development for staff)
  2. Targeted academic support
  3. Wider strategies

Within each category, we have chosen two or three interventions. This focused approach ensures the best chance of success for each intervention. 

 

Quality of Teaching

Good and Outstanding teaching is the most important lever schools have to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. Using the PPG to improve teaching quality benefits all pupils and has a particularly positive effect on children eligible for Pupil Premium.

Our priority at Barrington C of E Primary School is to ensure that a highly effective teacher is in front of every class, and that every teacher is supported to keep improving.

Facilitating ongoing professional development opportunities for all teaching staff.

  1. Professional development: ongoing in-house individual and group coaching sessions to support teachers/TAs, with a particular emphasis on maths, literacy/vocabulary, well-being and mental health and curriculum development.
  2. Professional Development for staff by attending targeted training courses and INSET.

 

Targeted academic support 

At Barrington C of E Primary School we consider carefully how staff are deployed to provide specific targeted academic support either in a one to one or small group situation.

  1. In class support; we believe that receiving extra adult support within the whole class lesson is the most effective way to support learning.
  2. Focused interventions: pre-teaching and follow-up booster sessions to enable pupils to access whole class teaching.
  3. Small group tuition: Introducing targeted English and maths teaching for pupils who are below age-related expectations. Creating additional teaching and learning opportunities using TAs.

Wider strategies

At Barrington C of E Primary School we aim to focus on the most significant non-academic barriers to success in school, including attendance, behaviour and social/emotional support.

  1. Readiness to learn: engagement and resilience
  2. Mental well-being
  3. Providing a wide variety of enrichment experiences for all pupils.

The school will focus on approaches that:

  • Are individually tailored to the strengths and needs of each pupil.
  • Are consistent (based on agreed core principles and components) but also flexible and responsive.
  • Are evidence-based.
  • Are focussed on clear short-term goals providing opportunities for pupils to experience success.
  • Include regular, high-quality feedback from teaching staff.
  • Engage parents/carers in the agreement and evaluation of support arrangements (e.g. via the pupil’s personal planning)).
  • Support pupil transition through the stages of education (e.g. from primary to secondary).
  • Raise aspirations through access to high-quality educational experiences.
  • Promote each pupil’s awareness and understanding of their own thought process (metacognition) and help them to develop problem-solving strategies.

The school will choose approaches that emphasize:

  • Relationship-building, both with appropriate adults and with their peers.
  • An emotionally-intelligent approach to the setting of clear behaviour boundaries.
  • Increasing pupils’ understanding of their own emotions and identity.
  • Positive reinforcement.
  • Building self-esteem.
  • Relevance to the learner – the approach relates to pupils’ interests and make success matter to them.
  • A joined-up approach involving the pupil’s social worker, carer and other relevant professionals.
  • A child-centred approach to assessment for learning. 

Our review process

 

Annually reviewing a one-year pupil premium plan and creating a new plan each year is time-costly and ineffective. This three-year approach allows us to dedicate more time up-front and introduce light-touch reviews annually.

During a light-touch review, we will review the success of each intervention, based on evidence, and determine the most effective approach moving forwards – adapting, expanding or ceasing the intervention as required.

Individual targets are set for each pupil in receipt of the PPG and their progress towards achieving these targets is analysed at the end of interventions.

The progress of pupils in receipt of the PPG is regularly discussed with subject teachers.

Once the three-year term has been completed, a new three-year strategy will be created in light of the lessons learned during the execution of the previous strategy, and with regard to any new guidance and evidence of best practice that becomes available. The Head Teacher is responsible for ensuring a pupil premium strategy is always in effect.

 

How will the school measure the impact of Pupil Premium Funding?

 

  • Target Tracker and FFT assessment tools are used by class teachers to measure attainment and progress at termly intervals through the year
  • All teachers are responsible for tracking the progress of all vulnerable groups, including Pupil Premium, SEND and EAL. This information is then collated and monitored by SLT.
  • Pupil Progress meetings are held termly between class teachers and SLT to monitor impact and identify any concerns to be addressed.
  • Attendance data is collected and monitored by the SLT
  • When selecting pupils for intervention groups and support, this will not be limited to children who are in receipt of Pupil Premium funding, but will include other pupils who have similar needs, and who we believe will benefit from the support / intervention.
  • Pupil Premium funding and its impact is a regular agenda item for the School Governor’s meetings.
  • Designated staff member in charge: Gill Davies (Head teacher)
  • Monitoring, assessment and tracking: Gill Davies (Head teacher)
  • Pupil Premium Responsible Governor: Nicky Rushton

 

Accountability

 

Ofsted inspections will report on the attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils in receipt of the PPG.

The school is held to account for the spending of the PPG through the focus in Ofsted inspections on the progress and attainment of the wider pupil premium eligible cohort; however, they will not look for evidence of the grant’s impact on individual pupils, or on precise interventions.

The school publishes its strategy for using the pupil premium, a link to the school and college performance tables and the schools’ performance table page on the school website.

 

Our funding

Please refer to the attached pdf documents for details of our funding, its use and our 3 year pupil premium strategy document.  

A copy of our school's pupil premium policy can be found on the policies page of this website.