Pupil Premium
Use of the Pupil Premium Grant in 2020-2021 and plans for 2021-2022
The pupil premium grant (PPG) provides funding for ‘raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities to reach their potential and supporting children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces’ (DfE 2021).
Secondary schools receive £955 for pupils for each student in Year 7 to Year 11 registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years. Schools also receive £2,345 for each pupil identified in the spring school census as being looked after or previously looked after. The service premium is extra funding for schools to support children and young people with parents in the armed forces. Schools will receive £310 for each eligible student.
|
Use of Pupil Premium Funding in 2020-2021 |
|
|---|---|
|
Number of students eligible for Pupil Premium funding |
80 |
|
Total amount of Pupil Premium funding |
£74,465 |
During the academic year 2020-21, the PPG was used in a variety of ways to support students to close the gap in curriculum and extracurricular opportunities. As a result, it reinforced aspects of our School Development Plan: providing excellent teaching and learning, character development and wellbeing for all students.
The following support was provided as a result of the PPG:
- Eligible students received a bursary towards their school uniform and travel by public transport.
- Eligible students received a stationery pack.
- All eligible Year 11 students received a revision tools pack.
- Subsidies to provide access to the full range of curriculum opportunities available such as revision guides, workbooks, subject based journals and materials for practical subjects like Art and Technology.
- Subsidies to provide access to the full range of extracurricular opportunities available such as Music tuition, trips and residential visits.
- Learning mentors provided one to one support and small group work sessions for students.
- Additional support from outside agencies including careers interviews and mentoring programmes.
- Laptops for students who had difficulty accessing the remote learning provision continued to support blended learning.
The Impact of PPG
|
|
Non-Pupil Premium Students |
Pupil Premium Students |
Overall School figure |
|---|---|---|---|
|
% who achieved 5 or more GCSE grades 4-9 including English and Maths. |
100 |
100 |
100 |
|
Attainment 8 |
77.44 |
77.93 |
77.47 |
The Attainment 8 figures show that on average both pupil premium and non-pupil premium students achieve at least eight grade 7s in their GCSEs. This indicates that the strategies used to raise the achievement of all students and narrow the gap between Pupil Premium students and non-Pupil Premium students were successful for this cohort. We continue to evaluate the impact of the strategies used and outline our plans for this academic year in the following section.
Plans for 2021-2022
|
Funding for 2021-2022 |
|
|---|---|
|
Number of students eligible for PPG |
76 |
|
Total amount of PPG |
£70,645 |
The school will build on its use of the PPG by continuing to provide targeted strategies to promote achievement. The school's approach is informed by the 'Teaching and Learning Toolkit' from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), an independent resource which provides guidance for teachers and schools on how to use their resources to improve the attainment of disadvantaged students. The school will also seek to develop students digital learning skills in line with the future workplace and to manage blended learning during the on-going impacts of COVID-19.
Barriers to future attainment
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.
The main barriers to educational achievement that disadvantaged students in the school face include costs associated with: travel to school, additional revision materials, school trips and residential visits. We are aware that restricted access to IT resources is a barrier to students’ progress and so we will continue to narrow any digital divide for students, to support their learning outside of the classroom.
Throughout this academic year, we continue to support a blended learning approach, as some students may need to self-isolate for a period of time or in the event of a local or national lockdown. We will continue to monitor the access that students have to digital technology at home and supplement their provision by loaning out school devices when needed. We will also ensure that identified students are provided with non-digital resources such as stationary when they are required to learn remotely.
Our priorities
Setting priorities is key to maximising the use of the PPG. Our priorities are as follows:
- Ensuring the highest quality of education is delivered to all students
- Ensuring that all students have full access to remote learning when required
- Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers
- Providing targeted academic support for pupils who are not making the expected progress
- Ensuring that all students have full access to extra-curricular and enrichment opportunities
- Addressing non-academic barriers to attainment such as attendance
- Ensuring that the PPG reaches the pupils who need it most
Our implementation and review process
We believe that all students will benefit from a continued whole school focus on excellent teaching and learning, personal development and wellbeing. In addition to the whole school approaches, we will identify a number of specific interventions to focus on. These will be monitored and reviewed during the academic year to ensure our approach is effective, we will cease or amend interventions that are not having the intended impact.
A wider review of our strategy for using the pupil premium grant, along with the recovery premium for 2021 to 2022 will take place during the Autumn term. The findings of the review will be published on our website by 31st December 2021.
If your daughter does not have Free School Meals but may be eligible because of your family's income, please contact the main school office for more details (telephone: 0121 354 1479). As well as having a Free School Meal, it will mean that the school can claim additional Pupil Premium funding in order to promote your daughter's learning.