Pupil Premium Report – Spring 2017

Introduction and Philosophy

January 2017, 9 of the 361 children in school were eligible for the Pupil Premium which is 2% of the school population – well below the national average.

Having a very small amount of children eligible for the Pupil Premium means that we look at each individually in terms of the support that we allocate to them and we have to be mindful of confidentiality when we report on this.

We use national research and analysis (e.g. the work of the Sutton Trust and the National Educational Trust) as well as our own internal analysis to determine the most effective use of these funds.

We are conscious that the Pupil Premium is intended to improve achievement of eligible pupils in English and Maths and, as such, we aim to ensure that the funding is used to improve these academic outcomes.  However, in order for this to happen the conditions for learning (particularly those associated around self-esteem) need to be secure.  Therefore, some of the Pupil Premium could be spent on more holistic interventions and strategies to ensure the development of the “whole child”.

Pupil Premium funding is intended to support those whose eligibility attracts it.  However, some interventions and strategies have a positive effect that inevitably impacts on other children as we seek to support eligible pupils without excluding or isolating them by default.  Furthermore, there are pupils in our school who are not eligible for the Pupil Premium but whose circumstances require support in ways that might be expected of someone who is eligible.  In these instances, where appropriate (e.g. forming an intervention group around an eligible pupil), it makes sense to also support such pupils with similar needs.

The Current Academic Year – September 2016 to July 2017

What is the school’s pupil premium grant for the current year?

The school’s Pupil Premium grant for this academic year is expected to be £10400. This is based on 6 pupils eligible for funding for all three terms and 3 eligible for 2 terms, each attracting £433 of additional funding per term (£1300 for the whole academic year).  Funding actually follows the financial year cycle which is different from the academic year cycle but we know that each child attracts a specific amount in each academic year and it this we use to plan support and monitor and evaluate its impact because it is easier to ensure accountability this way.

What are the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils at the school?

This is often highly personalised to the pupils in question with trends difficult to identify within such a small group.  However, some common themes within the last two years have included:

• Low baselines on entry
• Social/Emotional challenges
• Less potential to be supported in extra-curricular activities (certainly relative to other pupils in school)
• Other contributory factors (e.g. SEND)

How will the Pupil Premium be spent to address these barriers?  Why?

Over the coming year we will be allocating Pupil Premium funding to support pupils on two levels:

Personalised interventions including –

• 1:1 specific Reading, Writing and Maths interventions (e.g. Toe by Toe, Precision teaching, Pre-teaching, Inference / Deduction support, More Able Challenge tasks)
• Supporting children in taking part in extra-curricular activities that they would otherwise be unable to afford

Generalised interventions including –

• Social/Emotional group interventions (e.g. Learning Mentor, Eco-Squad, Lunchtime clubs)
• Aspirational More Able Groups (aspiring to attain greater depth)

An appendix to the Pupil Premium report, shared with governors, details the amount spent (and planned to be spent) on individual intervention and support strategies.  Giving details of the breakdown of this is not possible in the publically available report as it can identify support given to individual pupils.  However, spending over 2016/17 has been and it to be broken down into the following elements:

How will we measure the impact the Pupil Premium makes?

We will use three main strategies:

• Analysis of pupil achievement data in Reading, Writing and Maths
• Case study discussions of each child, taking into account their development across the curriculum and also their social, moral, spiritual and cultural development
• Pupil interviews by governors, ascertaining the views of children eligible for the Pupil Premium and comparing them with those who are not

When and how will we next review our Pupil Premium strategy?

Reviewing the effectiveness of the use of our Pupil Premium funding is integral to our Monitoring and Evaluation cycle.

Each term we will report to a named Pupil Premium governor on the progress of each child who is eligible across school.  A summary of this will then be shared with the governing body, taking care not to breach confidentiality given the small numbers of children in the school who are eligible.

This report will be reviewed each term and updated on the website.

What do we know so far about the effectiveness of Pupil Premium strategy in 2016/17?

Internal tracking data in Reading, Writing and Maths (up to Spring term 2017) suggests that almost all Pupil Premium children are on track to make expected progress in all areas by the end of the year.  Some have also on track to make accelerated progress although the proportion likely to be working at a greater depth is still below that of the school population generally.  Our Pupil Premium group’s baseline attainment is lower than our school average which explains this to an extent but we still have aspirations for further progress by the time children are reaching the end of Key Stage 2.

We have a high proportion of our Pupil Premium children concentrated into one particular year group at present which has had an impact on how funding has been allocated.  This is a cohort completing national assessments this year and projections suggest attainment below that of their peers (and the attainment of all pupils nationally) but progress for a large majority of this group has been expected or better across their current key stage.

The Previous Academic Year- September 2015 to July 2016

How was the Pupil Premium Allocation spent?

At the October census of the 2015/16 academic year, 7 pupils were eligible for the Pupil Premium (2% of the school population) and this attracted an overall funding amount of £10032 (consisting of £5390 from the 2015/16 financial year and £4642 from the 2016/17 financial year).

The individual breakdown of spending per pupil cannot be given here for confidentiality reasons but the interventions and strategies included:

• Additional teaching assistant support
• Additional transition work
• Support with transport
• Funding school visits
• Funding extra-curricular activities

What was the impact on eligible pupils and on other pupils?

Although representing a small group within Grange Farm, we have to be mindful of what achievement data tells us about the impact that the Pupil Premium is having.  Internal data (from in-school assessment and tracking analysis) and external data (analysing the performance of our children at key points (EYFS, Year 2 and Year 6) shows that children eligible for the Pupil Premium at Grange Farm are as likely to be making expected progress and attaining the expected levels as their peers.  However, they are less likely to be attaining above the expected level and making better than expected progress.  When we explore this on a child-by-child basis at case study level, we can identify that there are causal factors other than those associated with Pupil Premium but this is clearly still an area that requires a real focus in order for us to show that this funding is being used effectively in accelerating progress.

Individual examples show that intervention strategies had a positive impact on the social/emotional welfare of the children concerned.  For example, funding was used to support the specific needs of a pupil in transition between schools.  Also, funding was used to enable pupils to attend school trips, to attend extra-curricular activities and to be supported with transport to and from school where attendance would otherwise have been a key issue.

Analysing this impact has resulted in the following changes to our strategy in the use of Pupil Premium for the 2016/17 academic year:

• Switching from spending on teaching assistants to spending on specific interventions – in essence, this is still spending funding on time for an additional adult but focussing on the intervention will enable us to get a much sharper picture of the effectiveness of particular blocks of intervention
• Identifying middle ability attainers who have potential to attain greater depth given appropriate intervention

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