Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium funding:                           £17,160
Proportion of cohort:                                  9.5%
Number of disadvantage pupils:             14
Pupil Premium Lead:                                 Mr N. Jones
Date of next strategy review:                     Spring 2020

Mission

At St Nicholas CofE our vision and motto, is caring and preparing for a confident future. This is at the core of everything that we do. They underpin our teaching and learning, and provide an environment which prepares our pupils as confident, happy citizens.

Here at St Nicholas we have three school values which underpin everything that we work to achieve.

Respect. We respect all learners’ beliefs and different needs and work to meet these.

Responsibly. We ensure that all members of the school take pride in their work and know what they need to do in order to move the learning on for all members of the school community.

Integrity. We work to ensure that all members of the school community are honest and build strong moral principles.

Understanding barriers

At St Nicholas CofE Primary school we understand that challenging socio-economic circumstances can create additional barriers that may hinder children in their learning. However, we believe that these barriers can be overcome. In order to overcome these barriers we believe that excellent teachers can inspire and move all childrens learning forwards. Through the use of professional development, sharing outstanding practise and collaboration with other teachers our teachers continue to grow and help children overcome their own barriers to learning. We believe that all children need to have opportunity to take part in a variety of different experiences.

Through the use of excellent classroom teaching, children that are in receipt of pupil premium, have access to a high quality education and allow them to achieve the best possible outcomes based on their individual starting points.

To meet the different needs of all children, we have identified a range of different barriers to learning.

• Knowledge gaps – when a child is unable to attend school, they miss out on important lessons that move on their knowledge.

• A limited cultural capital, education stimulus and life experiences outside of the school – lack of experiences limits language and understanding.

• Low levels of engagement in Maths

• A lack of quality vocabulary and ability to manipulate language effectively impacts on impacts on learning and outcomes.

Strategy

At St Nicholas CofE Primary we will work to tackle barriers by:-

• Ensure that the provision for pupils including Pupil Premium is clearly identified by all as a whole school priority (and development plan) and monitored, as such, by leaders and IEB members effectively. 
  • The school development plan will clearly identify the strategy and improvements being implemented across the school.  Staff will be able to articulate what Pupil Premium provision is, what the school has implemented, which children are in receipt of Pupil Premium funding and the impact of the strategy at the end of the assessment period.

• Focusing on the individual child and their needs. (If children present with similar needs then they may be grouped accordingly.)
  • Passports (individual plans) will be used by teachers, pupils and families to provide tailored support, where appropriate.  Where resources have been “pooled” the impact will note how the intervention has benefited all relevant pupils.  This includes academic and other measures.

• Continuing to embed opportunities whereby work with pupils, families and staff identifies barriers to learning, achievement and wellbeing (in school and external to school). This strategy will ensure that the needs of the pupils is considered at all times
  • Passports will clearly indicate barriers to learning and how these have been addressed.  They will demonstrate that a clear rationale and process has been developed for each individual child, considering the needs of the child alongside best practice.  Where it is considered that adaptations to provision are needed, this will be clearly indicated along with the reasons why.

• Continue to embed the systems whereby individual need is addressed and reviewed regularly,
  • Passports will clearly indicate barriers to learning and how these have been addressed.  They will clearly identify how the spending allocated to each pupil has been used alongside the impact of the intervention for each pupil and, where appropriate, all pupils.  Passports will identify regular review meetings have taken place and appropriate actions have been followed. 

• Provide appropriate support and intervention focused on closing gaps in learning.  This will, in turn, enable pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium funding to close the gap between the outcomes that they achieve and the outcomes that all other pupils nationally achieve. 
  • Pupils will make good progress (using school progress criteria) and a significantly higher proportion will achieve age related expectations or above at the end of the academic year when compared to last academic year.

• Enable staff to access high quality, tailored, CPD (continual professional development) and support that enables them to ensure that Quality First Teaching, rather than a reliance on intervention, results in good progress and outcomes (using school performance and external, end of Key Stage measures as well as Ofsted and SIAMS criteria)
  • Teaching and learning in all areas will be 100% good or better (using OfSTED criteria and school criteria).  Monitoring and triangulation of evidence (including data) will prove that pupils have experienced high quality teaching and achieve outcomes that are at least in line with similar pupils nationally (where there are additional barriers/needs) and where there are no additional barriers (such as Special Needs), pupils will achieve in line with their peers nationally.

• Provide opportunities for pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium funding to access educational and cultural experiences that enable them to develop their skills, understanding and knowledge
  • The number of pupils experiencing extra-curricular experiences and accessing out of school provision will improve from 2018-2019 data (14% attending out of school provision).  Pupils will be clear about their local and national heritage and will use the knowledge and understanding that they gain from these experiences to enhance their work and behaviour.

• Continue to embed the attendance, behaviour for learning, monitoring, Passport, family liaison and other strategies identified in the 2018-2019 plan that were considered successful.
  • The outcomes of these strategies will be measured using outcomes for pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium funding (at the end of the assessment period).  These will consider whether they have made good progress (at least 6 steps) from their starting points and whether their outcomes are at least in line with national outcomes.  In addition, attendance for this group of pupils will improve by at least 2% (from 2018-2019 data) and family liaison will be positive with no complaints about provision for pupils entitled to Pupil Premium.  The number of families successfully applying for free school meals will increase from 17% (September 2019).  Behaviour will be judged as at least good using OfSTED criteria and pupils will note that they feel safe in school.

Accountability

The progress and outcomes of pupils who receive pupil premium funding is closely monitored and tracked to ensure that the school is working to close the gap between these pupils and all other pupils.

The Assistant Headteacher and leadership team will regularly and rigorously monitor, evaluate and review the strategies that are put into place and report to the governing body about the impact of spending, the progress of pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium and their outcomes.

As part of our commitment to ensure impact we undertake regular monitoring on all levels as set out below: -

• Data analysis

• Pupil progress meetings

• Challenge and Support Meetings for teachers

• Regular moderation meetings

• Learning Walks

• Book reviews

• Discussions with the children with regards to their work

• Observations

• SLT meetings looking at impact and data

• School improvement plan written by staff, pupils and governors

The governing body in turn, will use a variety of systems and processes (including, where necessary, external review) to review the reports and to hold the school to account.

The Pupil Premium provision is reviewed annually in the Autumn Term and monitored termly thereafter. The data and the development plan are also reviewed termly.

What if I believe my child is entitle to Free School Meals and, therefore Pupil Premium?

Your child may be eligible for free schools meals if you are receiving any of the following:

Income support

Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance

Child Tax Credit (not Working Tax Credit), with an annual income below £16,190

Pension Guarantee Credit

Employment and Support Allowance, income related

Support under part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act, 1999

Working Tax Credit run-on, paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for working Tax Credit

Universal Credit, with a household income of £7,400 or less (after tax and not including any benefits you get)

Please click on the link to the Essex County Council Website which gives you further information on how to apply:

https://www.essex.gov.uk/free-school-meals