Pupil Premium Strategy

Arboretum Primary School

Pupil Premium Strategy 2019-2022

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.

The Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) is additional funding for early years settings to improve the education they provide for disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-olds.

Our philosophy

At Arboretum Primary School we value the abilities and achievements of all its 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 “Reach for the Stars”. We believe in maximising the use of the pupil premium grant (PPG) by utilising a long-term strategy aligned to the SIP. 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 at the heart of our PPG use. 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.

Our priorities

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

• Ensuring an ‘outstanding’ teacher is 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 attendance and behaviour
• Ensuring that the PPG reaches the pupils who need it most

Barriers to future attainment

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.

We will:

Explore

• Identify a key priority that we can address
• Systematically explore appropriate programmes and practices
• Examine the fit and feasibility with the school

Prepare

• Develop a clear, logical and well-specified plan
• Assess the readiness of the school to deliver the plan
• Make practical preparations

Deliver

• Support staff and solve any problems using a flexible leadership approach
• Reinforce initial training with follow-on support
• Drive faithful adoption and intelligent adaption

Sustain

• Plan for sustaining and scaling the intervention from the outset
• Continually acknowledge, support and reward good implementation practices
• Treat scale-up as a new implementation process

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
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 Arboretum 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.

Encouraging self-led professional development: Facilitating weekly CPD opportunities for all teaching staff.

1. Professional development: Weekly individual and group coaching sessions to support teachers/TAs, with a particular emphasis on maths, literacy/vocabulary and curriculum development.
2. Professional Development for staff by attending targeted training courses and INSET.

Targeted academic support

At Arboretum 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. Structured interventions: Introducing speech and language interventions for pupils with poor oral language and communication skills.
2. 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 Arboretum 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: Continued development of a breakfast club to provide pupils with a nutritious breakfast and exercise before school.
2. Attendance: Use of Family Liaison Officers daily to improve attendance and foster links with parents.
3. Providing a wide variety of enrichment experiences for all pupils.

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?

• Pupil Asset 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 SMT.
• Pupil Progress meetings are held every 3 weeks between class teachers and SMT to monitor impact and identify any concerns to be addressed.
• Attendance data is collected and monitored by the Family Liaison Officers and SMT
• 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: Nigel Daintith (Acting Head teacher)
• Monitoring, assessment and tracking: Nigel Daintith and Charmian Hardy (Acting Deputy Head), Natalie Linnecor and Nichola Quenby  (SENDCOs)
• Pupil Premium Responsible Governor: Lynda Wynn

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

Pupil Premium Impact Report

2018-19

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.

The Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) is additional funding for early years settings to improve the education they provide for disadvantaged 3- and 4-year-olds.

Funding Received 2018-19

Our Pupil Premium funding for the 2018-19 academic year was:

Our Early Years Pupil Premium funding for the 2018-19 academic year was:  £4,181

Our Approach

At Arboretum Primary School we value the abilities and achievements of all its 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 “Reach for the Stars”.

Expenditure

Outcomes – 2019 Data

Phonics

KS1 - Year Two

KS2 - Year Six