What is the Pupil Premium Grant?
The Pupil Premium is a government initiative introduced in April 2011. It targets additional funding for disadvantaged children in the following categories:
- Students who are, or who have been previously (in last 6 years), eligible for free school meals (FSM)
- Looked After Children (LAC)
- Service Child Premium (children with parents in the armed forces)
What are the aims for the Pupil Premium Grant?
The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers.
The aim of the Pupil Premium is to identify and implement strategies that help to increase social mobility and reduce the attainment gap between the most and least disadvantaged pupils nationally. When planning strategies we have placed a strong emphasis on reading, writing and and numeracy as well as raising aspirations as we believe that our disadvantaged pupils require most support in these key areas. These skills are crucial for preparing pupils for life beyond school and future careers success.
What barriers do pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant face?
The barriers and challenges disadvantaged pupils face are complex and varied. However, we have identified several barriers that we believe are particularly relevant to our disadvantaged children:
- Reading and Writing
- Numeracy
- Low aspirations
- Low attendance
- Families in need of early intervention
- Poor emotional literacy
- Emerging mental health needs
We allocate our Pupil Premium Grant to resources that aim to close the gaps in these areas.
What are our priority areas for spending?
- Evidence based writing interventions including spellings
- Evidence based numeracy interventions
- Ensuring early intervention for families
- Improving mental health in young people
- Additional support staff ensuring all children’s needs are catered for
- Initiatives to raise aspirations
What are our desired outcomes?
- Improve the mental health of children in receipt of pupil premium
- Early intervention in place for families
- Improve outcomes for all pupil premium pupils
- Accelerate progress in reading, writing and maths
- Improve attendance for pupil premium pupils
- Widen experiences and aspirations for all children
- Department for Education
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