Policy for Pupil Premium 2021-22

At The Heys it is our responsibility to ensure that all children in our school achieve their potential and in order to do so we seek to meet the individual needs of every child. Pupil Premium will be used and managed by us to enable us to tailor support for identified children in a range of ways appropriate to their needs.

Background

The pupil premium is a Government initiative that targets extra money at pupils from deprived backgrounds, which research shows underachieve compared to their non-deprived peers. The premium is provided in order to support these pupils in reaching their potential.

The Government have used pupils entitled to Free School meals as an indicator for deprivation, and have deployed a fixed amount of money to schools per pupil, based on the number of pupils registered for Free School meals. This fixed amount of money will increase every year of the course of this current Parliament. At The Heys Primary School we will be using the indicator of those eligible for Free School meals as our target children to ‘narrow the gap’ regarding attainment.

The Government are not dictating how schools should spend this money, but are clear that schools will need to employ the strategies that they know will support their pupils to increase their attainment, and ‘narrow the gap’.

Schools will be accountable for narrowing the gap, and performance tables now include new measures that show the attainment of pupils who receive the pupil premium compared with their peers.

Aims:

All our work through the pupil premium will be aimed at accelerating progress, moving children to at least age related expectations and beyond.

 Pupil premium resources may also be used to target more able children on free school meals to achieve higher levels.

Provision:

• We ensure that appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups. This includes ensuring that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed.
• We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the pupil premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.
• Pupil premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals. Limited funding and resources means that not all children receiving free school meals will be in receipt of pupil premium interventions at one time.
• A curriculum, under constant review, which is designed to offer maximum flexibility to meet the needs of individuals.
• Constant staff development and training to ensure that all staff in school are able to provide for each individual child.
• A broad and varied extra-curricular programme to offer experience outside of the classroom to all children.
• Individual mentoring and support programmes where needed.
• Support of a Learning Mentor.
• Financial support to ensure that children do not miss educational opportunities due to financial hardship i.e. educational visits, residential visits and after school clubs.
• Providing in school support for children with particular educational needs.
• Additional teaching and learning opportunities through trained TAs or external agencies.
• Family learning opportunities to raise aspirations of families and children.

Reporting:

It will be the responsibility of the Headteacher and Deputy Headteacher to produce termly reports for the Governors on:

The progress made towards narrowing the gap by year group for socially disadvantaged pupils.

An outline of the provision that was made since the last meeting.

An evaluation of the cost effectiveness in terms of progress made by the pupils receiving a particular provision, when compared with other forms of support.

The Governors of the school will ensure that there is an annual statement to parents on how the pupil premium funding has been used to address the issue of narrowing the gap for socially disadvantaged pupils. This task will be carried out within the requirements published by the DFE.

Appeals:

Any appeals against this policy will be through the governor’s complaint s procedure.