Pupil Premium Grant
What is the Pupil Premium Grant?
The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best
way to address the underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and
their wealthier peers, by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage, reaches the pupils who need it
most. The extra amount of money allocated to schools, is allocated to children who have been in receipt
of FSM at some point during their time at school, during their primary phase. (Secondary schools are also
allocated extra money). It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium is spent, since they are best
placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their
responsibility.
Our Key Objective in using the Pupil Premium Funding is to narrow the gap between different pupil
groups so that children in receipt of this funding perform as well as those who do not.
Overview of Rowdowns Pupil Premium Grant 2014-2015
Pupil Premium Received £183,600
The funding received from the Pupil Premium funds different activities in school. Here is a selection:
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Employment of two teachers and a teaching assistant in our specialist unit, the Orchard Room.
P2B counselling service, Place 2Be.
Employment of two learning mentors to support individual and groups of children and parents
1:1 tuition in English and maths for targeted pupils
Employment of specialist drama and music teacher, subsidised music lessons
Provide support to children and families to enable them to attend school trips
Provision in more detail
Orchard Room
The Orchard Room is a special facility to aid children who have specific learning or behavioural
difficulties as well as providing additional support for children who are EAL. It is not specifically for
pupils eligible for Pupil Premium, but the majority of children using the facility are.
Intervention work
Interventions, usually in the form of 1-to-1 or small group tuition are again for any children where
there progress is behind their peers. No specific record is made of who receives this and therefore we
have notionally allocated c.65% to PP to recognise the level of children for which we receive PP.
Place 2 Be
We have calculated the percentage of hours used by pupils eligible for PP and allocated this
percentage of the total P2B cost to PP.
Musical Tuition
Without the significant PP received by the school, the provision of subsidised music lessons would not
be possible. Again, as all children benefit from this, without discrimination of any kind, we have used
the notional allocation of 65% of the cost of these coaches.
Pupil Premium Grant-an evaluation of 2014-15
How will we know if it is making a difference?
We use our data system to track the progress of all of our pupils in school every term and we
compare children according to different characteristics including FSM. The DfE also publish our results
in a report called the ‘Data Dashboard’ which analyses our school data.
Key stage 1 Attainment and progress 2014-15
Year 2 Summary for Level 2c+
Subject
Actual
Reading
87.5%
Writing
82.5%
Maths
97.5%
National 2c+
91
88
93
40 children (2.5% per child)
Year 2 Summary for Level 2b+
Subject
Actual
Reading
70%
Writing
62.5%
Maths
70%
Year 2 Summary for Level 3+
Subject
Actual
Reading
25%
Writing
0%
Maths
15%
National 2c+
82
72
82
National 3
32
18
26
Key stage 2 Attainment and progress 2014-15
Year 6 Summary for Level 4+
Subject
Actual
Reading
77%
Writing
77%
SPAG
79%
Maths
83%
All subjects
71%
48 children
Year 6 Summary for Level 4b+
Subject
Actual
Reading
71%
Writing
52%
SPAG
73%
Maths
75%
*Writing teacher assessment at 4b+
National
89%
87%
80%
87%
80%
National
89%
87%
80%
87%
Year 6 Summary for Level 5+
Subject
Actual
Reading
25%
Writing
15%
SPAG
40%
Maths
29%
National
48%
36%
56%
41%
Year 6 Summary for Level 6
Subject
Actual
Reading
0%
Writing
0%
Maths
10%
National
0%
2%
9%
Percentage of children achieving 2 levels plus in reading, writing and mathematics, at key stage 2
Reading 2L +
91
Writing 2L+
94
Maths 2L+
90
Reading, writing and maths
80
The school maintained its improved percentage of attendance for the second year
running:
Overall attendance
Since September – July the overall figure (without nursery) was: 95.2% (PPG achieved 95.2%)
PPG overall figure was 95%, which means our PPG children performed as well as our non- PPG
(Figures taken in June)
Expenditure
A sample of costs for academic year 2014-15
Action
Attendance
Cost
£5,000 EWO support.
Orchard Room
£98,000
(approximately)
Additional Educational Psychologist £900
time.
3 additional sessions x £300
Place 2 Be
£24,062
Impact
Attendance increased by 1.7 % compared
with the previous academic year.
The overall attendance was 95.5%
Persistent Absence figures:
Number of PA pupils was 8 pupils. In the
academic year 2012-13 the figure was 18 PA
pupils.
Children with identified needs (approximately
30 children per term) receive intensive
academic support and where necessary,
additional emotional support.
All but one child made academic progress in
reading writing and maths.
Improved individual provision → improved
attainment
12 children a year are provided with at least
three terms of emotional support.
Behaviour of individuals improved. Focus on
learning and therefore progress in learning
improved in 100% of cases
Place 2 Talk is a flexible support for children.
‘Let’s Get Cooking’ Club
£1,000
Children confident about nutrition. Able to
cook for themselves. Set up in Spring 2014
Some of the above activities are embedded in the school’s way of working. Activities support the
children and start to break down the barriers that might be getting in the way of their learning. Place
2 Be is a good example of an intervention that allows individual children to work through emotional
difficulties. Other activities are those activities which give “equality of opportunity” or activities that
inspire children. Such activities might be the “Let’s Get Cooking” Project.
A large but effective investment is in the quality of teaching. This year we have developed a number
of inexperienced teachers who are now demonstrating consistently good practice.
Conclusion
Impact of Pupil Premium Spending 2014-15
The school’s evaluation of its own performance is rigorous. Tracking of progress over time for each
pupil is thorough, so we can quickly identify any dips and develop sensible strategies and
interventions to promote improvement.
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A wide range of data is used: achievement data, monitoring of pupils’ work, observations and
learning walks.
Assessment data is collected each term so impact of new strategies can be monitored
regularly.
Teaching staff attend and contribute to pupil progress meetings each term and the
identification of children for targeted support is reviewed.
Feedback about performance is given to children and parents.
Strategies and interventions are adapted or changed if they are not working.
We use RAISEonline, end of key stage 2, end of key stage 1 data, year 1 phonics data, EYFS data as
well as our own whole school data to evaluate impact in terms of attainment and progress. We
produce a detailed termly report for governors as well as the Local Authority.
Results from 2014/15 would indicate that this expenditure did have a positive impact in some
areas. Good examples of this are our gains in attendance for PPG pupils and also the investment in
training good teachers. Our end of key stage results for EYFS and KS1 are much improved and we
have seen some improvements in our KS2 results. However, whilst progress was good for some
groups of children, it was not as good as we would have liked with others. The work planned for
2015-16, will be an opportunity to enhance the gains already made. We will continue to plan
specialized activities for children, but focusing on activities that have a significant impact on
attainment and progress.
Linda Shute
(Head Teacher)