Pupil Premium Strategy Statement

This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium for the 2022 to 2023 academic year) funding received by the school to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged pupils. 

It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year and the effect that last year’s spending of pupil premium had within our school.

School overview

Funding overview

Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan

Statement of intent

We believe that education is a tool in achieving social justice. Our intent is for disadvantaged pupils to achieve excellence, to love learning and to have a sense of belonging in education.

To achieve this all pupils need to develop the skills necessary in reading, writing and mathematics so their outcomes at least in line with their non disadvantaged peers. 

Disadvantaged pupils’ oral skills and vocabulary are central in enabling them to make good progress across the curriculum so we prioritise oracy from the minute they start at our school. As they progress through our school, we give disadvantaged pupils the skills, stamina, inspiration and confidence to communicate their thoughts orally and in writing. 

High quality inclusive teaching is central and key in our approach to support disadvantaged pupils in meeting these objectives. We use our pupil premium to support the development of teachers to teach high quality phonics and reading skills, especially for pupils at the stages of early reading. We also use funding to ensure pupils develop firm foundations in number and factual fluency as well as the skills to problem solve and reason. 

Where disadvantaged pupils need additional support to make progress, we use an inclusive pre-teaching ‘keep up’ model, and interventions in maths fluency, spelling, phonics and reading which run concurrently with whole class sessions so that pupils do not have a narrowed curriculum. We support disadvantaged pupils who need to make the most progress to meet expected levels, as well as those who have the potential to excel and work at greater depth. 

We place high importance on enriching the curriculum and providing additional opportunities for disadvantaged pupils, such as additional specialist music tuition and sports clubs. 

We champion our disadvantaged pupils and their families, holding the highest expectations and ambition for their progress and attainment. Our staff develop relationships with each of these pupils, and their families, and take collective responsibility for their primary school experience and learning outcomes.

Challenges

This LINK details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.

Intended outcomes 

The LINK in this section explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.

Activity in this academic year

This LINK details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) this academic year to address the challenges listed above.

Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year

Pupil Premium strategy outcomes

This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2021 to 2022 academic year.  

End of Key Stage Assessments (SATs) were undertaken in 2022 for the first time since the pandemic. Test and progress results for the end of primary school in KS2 show a positive impact of our Pupil Premium Strategy for our disadvantaged pupils. 

Disadvantaged pupils attained above pupils nationally and significantly above disadvantaged pupils nationally.  Progress scores in all subjects were above national for both disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils. 

In KS2 the in-school progress gap, particularly in writing, remains. This is in line with our assessment of the most significant negative impact of repeated school closures being on KS2 writing, and a negative, but not as significant, impact on maths. Attainment and progress in writing and mathematics at KS2 continues to be a priority for our Pupil Premium Strategy for 2022/23. 

The introduction of a new phonics approach ensured staff were well trained to deliver effective early reading strategies and had a significant positive impact on the Year 1 cohort’s phonics learning, with all disadvantaged pupils passing the phonics check. Phonics and Early Reading will remain a priority, however, to ensure the positive trend continues. 

In addition to academic outcomes, the grant was used to enable all children to participate in enrichment activities including residential, theatre, outdoor adventurous and learning related visits. All disadvantaged pupils had full access to extracurricular sporting activities, as well as the opportunity to represent the school in a sporting event. This ‘cultural capital’ is vital in providing a broader knowledge and understanding of the world. Through participation in these challenging physical and cultural activities, pupils are supported to develop non-cognitive skills such as resilience, self-confidence and motivation. 

Pupil and parental feedback about the impact of our Wellbeing Curriculum and school-based therapist has been extremely positive. Pupil voice monitoring of the Wellbeing Curriculum included one disadvantaged pupil saying, ‘I know the teachers care about my wellbeing because we have these lessons, and it gives me a toolkit for how to manage my emotions.’

Further information (optional)

Here is a link to our EP Curriculum which outlines our approach.