Pupil Premium
What is Pupil Premium?
Pupil Premium was introduced in 2011 to provide schools with additional funding for pupils who have been eligible for free school meals at any point during their time at primary school. Pupil Premium funding is allocated to schools for the purpose of boosting the attainment of pupils from low income families and narrowing the gap in attainment between children from low income families and their peers, as well as to increase the range of opportunities available to them and improve their life chances It is intended to enable schools to provide targeted support to help children reach their full potential. Funding is allocated for children who are Looked After by the Local Authority and for every child who is eligible for Free School Meals.
At Ravensbury, we have high aspirations and ambitions for our children and we believe that no child should be left behind. We strongly believe that it is not about where you come from but your passion and thirst for knowledge and your dedication and commitment to learning that make the difference between success and failure, and we are determined to ensure that our children are given every chance to realise their full potential. Pupil premium funding represents a sizeable proportion of our budget and this policy outlines how we will ensure it is spent to maximum effect.
For the financial year 2019-2020, we received £270,902.00 for pupil premium
For the financial year 2020-2021, we received £276,380.00 for pupil premium
For the financial year 2021-2022, we received £297,245.00 for pupil premium plus £32,335.00 for recovery premium funding
For the financial year 2022-2023, we received £310,085.00 for pupil premium plus £33,460.00 for recovery premuim funding
Early Years Pupil Premium
From April 2015, all nurseries, schools, child minders and other childcare providers will be able to claim extra funding through the Early Years Pupil Premium to support child’s development, learning and care. We wanted to write to you to explain what the Early Years Pupil Premium is, explain who is eligible for this funding and importantly to ask you to complete the forms so that that we as a school can claim extra funding.
National data and research tells that children eligible for free school meals tend to do less well, for example in 2014 45% of children eligible for free school meals achieved the expected level at the end of the Early Years Foundation Stage compared to 64% of other children. The Early Years Pupil Premium will provide extra funding to close this gap.
The Early Years Pupil Premium provides an extra 53 pence per hour for 3 and 4 year old children whose parents are in receipt of certain benefits or who have been in care or adopted from care. this means an extra £302 a year for each child taking up the 570 hours funded entitlement to early education. This additional money could make a significant difference to us.
We can use the extra funding in any way we choose to improve the quality of the Early Years education that we provide for your child. This could include for example additional training for our staff on early language investing in partnership working with our colleagues in the area to further our expertise or supporting our staff in working on specialised areas such as speech and language.
It is well documented that high quality education can influence how well a child does at both primary and secondary school so we do want to make the most of this additional funding. You may be aware if you have older children then a pupil premium grant has been available for school age children and it has been beneficial to those children receiving the funding.
Recovery Premium Funding
The impact of Covid-19 has presented us with unprecedented challenges. 2020-21 will focus on re-establishing routines, reconnecting with pupils, improving stamina and resilience, reestablishing good progress, as well as supporting the mental health and wellbeing of all stakeholders. We have found that lockdown has created new barriers to learning or exacerbated existing challenges for our children. Many of our children, particularly those from disadvantaged backgrounds, or who are vulnerable in other ways have been adversely affected by extended time away from school. A significant number of pupils have struggled with the loss of familiar routines. In terms of learning, many children were unable to access and engage fully with remote learning.
“Children from disadvantaged backgrounds are likely to have been more affected particularly severely by closures and may need more support to return to school and
settle back into school life. Whilst all pupils will benefit from the EEF recommendations, it is likely that some forms of support will be particularly beneficial to disadvantaged.” (Covid-19 Support Guide for Schools – June 2020)
As a school we have identified key barriers to future attainment and through our baseline assessments, and detailed gap analysis we have planned a clear approach to enable us to address the challenges presented due to the impact of COVID 19.
Our approach focusses on:
- Quality First Teaching – These are inclusive strategies used within classrooms on a daily basis.
- Targeted Interventions – These are additional interventions used to address gaps in learning that cannot be met within the classroom.
- Whole School Strategies - These are strategies used to support families within the community.
The overall aims of our catch-up premium strategy are:
- To reduce the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers
- To support the mental health and wellbeing of all pupils
- To close the gap created by COVID-19 school closures
.