The Pupil Premium

The Pupil Premium is additional funding given to schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers. The system allocates funds per pupil based on key eligibility criteria including FSM, looked after children and children who are in care.

We received £429k in 2022-23. Indicative allocation for 2024-25 is £426k.

Expenditure is monitored closely with all schools accountable for the impact of the money spent.  We spend this money in a variety of ways to support students whose families are on a low income. The important thing is to make sure that the ways that it is spent have the highest possible impact on attainment and success.

Pupil Premium Spending

Key principles:

• We aim to put strategies in place to challenge underperformance for all our students. 
• EAL provision is an essential ingredient for challenging underachievement given the high level of need.
• We constantly refine strategies  and approaches to challenging poor progress as we learn from research on what works best.
• We invest in specialist teachers and reduce class sizes, where impact assessment evidences the value of these interventions. 

The key areas of Literacy, Numeracy, EAL and Behaviour for Learning have had continued Pupil Premium investment, primarily in the form of provision of specialist staff. This enables us to achieve smaller group sizes and timetable 1;1 tuition where necessary. The smaller group sizes impact across all year groups and individual tuition is targeted at year 10/11 KS4 pupils and those with high needs in KS3.

Core subjects of English, maths and science have historically had higher staffing levels enabling us to run smaller classes particularly for lower ability sets. The total learning hours for KS4 have been increased by extending the school day to create additional period 6 lessons.

• Increased staffing for core subjects - £30,000
• Period 6 for KS4 increases learning time for all pupils (Already costed within staffing)
• 3 x EAL specialist teachers - £180,000
• 2 x Literacy support workers including (HLTAs)  - £65,000
• Literacy Centre (1 x FTE) - £45,000
• Dedicated team to support students in terms of attendance and punctuality. £85,000
• Dedicated LSU team to support student behaviour for learning - £180,000
• Continued use of interpreters to support assessment of EAL students and to support parent evenings and meetings - £25,000
• Continued focus upon examination board training for subject specialist teams - £30,000
• Continued membership of PIXL club to support raising standards - £8,000
• Increased availability of alternative provision for students at risk of exclusion - £30,000
• Continued development of in school seclusion facility as an alternative to temporary exclusion
• Homework club / Extended library hours and staffing – £7,500
• GCSE option subject revision materials and programmes – £10,000
• Provision of revision materials and access to online resources (Bedrock / Seneca etc) - £30,000
• MEP Programme– Costs included within staffing costs
• STEM programme – Costs included within staffing costs

The total spend is in excess of £730,500. It should be noted that almost all of these strategies are made available to all students who require them.

How we measure impact

• Continual monitoring and review of interventions/strategies
• Systematic use of data to track the progress of students
• The curriculum review process during the autumn term includes a review of eligible students' progress in individual subjects at KS4 and KS5 

For 2023-24:

• Academy whole school Progress 8 Score: +0.48
• National Progress 8 Score: -0.03 (according to Department of Education)
• Academy Disadvantaged Students: +0.43
• National Disadvantaged Students: +0.16 (DfE)