PUPIL PREMIUM INFORMATION

Purpose

The government believes that the pupil premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

The pupil premium is allocated to schools to work with pupils who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’).

Schools also receive funding for children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months, and children of service personnel.

Accountability

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 with their peers
  • the Ofsted inspection framework, under which inspectors focus on the attainment of pupil groups, and in particular those who attract the pupil premium
  • the reports for parents that schools have to publish online

How schools present the information in their online statement is a matter for each school. There is certain information that must be in the report: the school’s pupil premium allocation in respect of the current academic year; details of how it is intended that the allocation will be spent; details of how the previous academic year’s allocation was spent, and the impact of this expenditure on the educational attainment of those pupils at the school, in respect of whom grant funding was allocated.

What did Ofsted say about our Pupil Premium work in their October 2014 report?

2015-16 Pupil Premium funding allocated to the Academy = £265000

How we planned to utilise the Pupil Premium funding to support student progress in 2015-16

Following a review of the positive impact of the Pupil Premium funding we plan to repeat/maintain/develop the range of strategies we used the funding for during 2012 to 2015.

The Academy has agreed to include the following spending areas from our 2015/16 Pupil Premium allocation:

Staffing

  • Increasing the staffing further in English, Maths, Science and other option areas to have reduced class sizes/provide intervention and also deliver a breadth of courses at KS4. In 2015/16 this will be equivalent to an additional 5.5 full time teachers.
  • Fund a Maths tutor to provide targeted intervention for key students
  • Fund an intervention tutor to support targeted students in Year 11
  • Fund key support staff, such as our Data Manager, to enable efficient tracking of student progress across all year groups in the Academy and in particular the ‘gap’ between the performances of different student groups (including Pupil Premium).

Increase motivation

  • Fund external motivational speakers/workshops to engage with students and increase their aspiration to succeed.
  • Fund the targeted work of external organisations (including Inspired2Achieve) to provide support to students and families in engaging with the Academy and improving outcomes
  • Fund external consultant to work with a targeted group of Year 11 students to support them as they strive to achieve their potential
  • Fund ways of rewarding students who maintain a positive approach to their learning

Personalising the curriculum

  • Funding alternative/vocational courses which enable students to succeed. In 2015/16 a group of students will be attending Yeovil College for part of their timetable to complete a course in ‘Construction’.
  • Funding a wide range of online resources which enable students to become independent learners.
  • Providing the Intervention Coordinator with a budget to support PP students and prepare/purchase targeted resources.

Targeted intervention programmes/rewards

  • Continue and develop the ‘Sound Training for Reading’ project to increase literacy levels and as a result ease access to the wider curriculum
  • Contribute to the funding of the 4th year of the ‘Achievement for All’ intervention programme
  • Fund a range of additional provision to support the progress of PP students – Breakfast Club, ‘Night Club’ and other targeted subject interventions for PP students (such as attending PiXL Maths conference or taking part in the ‘Brilliant Club’)
  • Fund in year mentoring programmes and rewards

Impact of the Pupil Premium funding on ‘Closing the Gap’ in 2015-2016

The impact of Pupil Premium funding continued to be positive across Year 11 with Gaps from 2014- 2015 continuing to close:

2015 Gap / 2016 Gap / Gap Closed by
5 A*-C EM / -19.02 / -14.1 / 4.92 / The gap in the number of students gaining 5 or more GCSEs at Grade C or above, including English and Maths has closed to 4.9%
P8 (0) / -0.6 / -0.23 / 0.37 / The gap between the Progress 8 Score (the new measure for measuring progress from Key Stage 2 to Key Stage 4 has closed by 0.37 points.
A8 (4.78) / -0.79 / -0.63 / 0.16 / The gap in Attainment of students in a selection of 8 of their subjects, including English and Maths, 3 EBacc and 3 ‘Other’ subjects has closed by 0.16.
Eng and Maths / -14.74 / -10.96 / 3.78 / The gap in the % of students gaining both English and Maths has closed by 3.78%
Ebacc / -12.06 / -9.61 / 2.45 / The gap in the % of students achieving the EBacc has closed by 2.45%.
Value Added / -37.56 / -16.4 / 21.16 / The Valued Added Gap, which measures student progress from Year 7 to Year 11 has closed to 21.2 points.

The Academy regularly and routinely monitors the ‘gaps’ in performance between pupil premium students and the rest of the year cohort for current students. This tracking is embedded in what we call our ‘Closing the Gap’ process where we challenge any ‘gaps’ and work towards reducing them through strategic and targeted interventions.

Key areas of the Academy where Pupil Premium has made the biggest impact.

  1. Reduced Class sizes.
  2. Student intervention
  3. The work of the data manager.
  4. The support of the PFSA

2016-17 Pupil Premium funding allocated to the Academy = £252000

How we plan to utilise the Pupil Premium funding to support student progress in 2015-16

Following a review of the positive impact of the Pupil Premium funding we plan to repeat/maintain/develop the range of strategies we used the funding for during 2012 to 2015.

The Academy has agreed to include the following spending areas from our 2016/17 Pupil Premium allocation:

Staffing

  • Continue to support extra staffing, with particular focus being in English, Maths and Science.
  • Fund an additional Maths Leadership Post to raise standards and support student progress in Maths.
  • Fund Intervention Coordinator posts in core subjects to raise attainment.
  • Fund an intervention tutor to support targeted students in Key Stage 4.
  • Fund key support staff, such as our Data Manager, to enable efficient tracking of student progress across all year groups in the Academy
  • To fund a PFSA, who will support students and families from KS2 through to the end of KS4.

Increase motivation

  • Fund external motivational speakers/workshops to engage with students and increase their aspiration to succeed
  • Fund the targeted work of external organisations to provide support to students and families in engaging with the Academy and improving outcomes
  • Fund ways of rewarding students who maintain a positive approach to their learning

Personalising the curriculum

  • Funding alternative/vocational courses which enable students to succeed
  • Funding a wide range of online resources which enable students to become independent learners
  • Support the funding of compulsory trips and visits, which are directly linked to curriculum areas.

Targeted intervention programmes

  • Develop ‘Sound Training for Reading’ project to increase literacy levels and as a result ease access to the wider curriculum
  • Fund mentoring programmes and rewards

General

  • Support with the funding of key activities to aid student engagement.