Pupil Premium and Disadvantaged Pupils

The school receives additional funding for pupils deemed to be disadvantaged which is additional to our main budget allocation. It is calculated by using the number of children who have ever been eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) during the last 6 years, service children and an allocation for each pupil who has been 'Looked After' (in care) for 6 months or more.  Currently we have 66 children who meet this criteria.

Each child on the Free School Meals List is allocated £1300, service children are allocted £325 and children who have been 'looked after' are allocated £1900. 

"This money is intended to be used to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantaged reaches the pupils who need it most" (DfE www.education.gov.uk 2012).

In the 2016/17 budget Threemilestone School was allocated £90,380 disadvantaged pupil funding

The Government believes that Head Teachers and School Leaders should decide how to use the Pupil Premium. They are held accountable for the decisions they make through:

• The performance tables which show the performance of disadvantaged pupils compared to their peers.
• The new Ofsted inspection framework, under which inspectors focus on the attainment of pupil groups, in particular those who attract the Pupil Premium.
• The new reports for parents that schools now have to publish on-line.

"Schools decide how to use the funding, as they are best placed to assess what additional provision their pupils need". (DfE www.education.gov.uk 2012)

The progress of all children at Threemilestone School is tracked and discussed at an individual level at pupil progress meetings which are held termly. Groups of children are looked at specifically; Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND), High Ability (HA), English as an Additional Language (EAL) and Free School Meals (FSM), Service and 'Looked After' children. Regular tracking and monitoring allows teachers to be aware of children who fall into these categories and track their progress. This tracking helps to ensure that all children are given the support that they need, regardless of their eligibility, but also allows the teaching team to identify which children require additional support.

The Governors and the Senior Leadership Team are actively committed to the success and progress of children who are eligible for pupil premium funding and have made the decisions on how the money is to be spent .

This year the  school intends to use this funding to:

·        Continue to employ a Learning Mentor to support children’s emotional, social and behavioural needs.

·        Provide additional Teaching Assistant Support to run booster sessions/interventions, including pre-teaching, in targeted year groups (year 5 and year 6).

·        Using an HLTA to organise and deliver support/intervention in targeted year groups, including covering classes as appropriate to release class teachers to provide additional and focused support if appropriate (year 2 and year 4).

·        Maintain current levels of support staff in classes to allow teachers to provide additional targeted support including:

o  Same day intervention

o  Pre teaching

o  Immediate feedback

o  Support in providing consistent in class interventions.

·        Provide teachers with additional release time to allow them to evaluate the progress of these specific pupil groups, plan for additional support/resources needed and to pupil conference.

·        Enable release time of phase leaders in the school to monitor and evaluate the provision that is in place for these specific pupil groups. This will allow us to adapt provision if it is not having the desired impact; it will also enable us to ensure that agreed actions are carried through.

·        Provide adequate release time for pupil progress meetings – this will allow us to closely look at the attainment and progress towards targets; including a specific focus of these pupil groups.

These initiatives and strategies are all backed with evidence from the schools tracking database and are continually monitored and their effectiveness and value for money evaluated.

For a detailed breakdown of spending in the academic year 2016/17 and a summary of the impact of chosen strategies please click here.

Results