Pupil Premium & Catch Up Funding
Pupil Premium
Pupil Premium at Parklands Primary School
What is Pupil Premium?
This funding is to provide additional support to pupils who are: entitled to or who have been entitled to Free School Meals in the last 6 years; those who are ‘Looked After’ by the Local Authority; those that have been adopted; or those who are ‘Service Children’.
The aim of the funding is to ensure that each child’s attainment is maximised and their educational experience enhanced.
ELIGIBILITY FOR FREE SCHOOL MEALS AND PUPIL PREMIUM
You may qualify if you are a parent, guardian or carer and receive one of the following:
- Income Support (IS) or you are a pupil receiving the benefit in your own right
- Income Based Jobseekers Allowance (IBJSA)
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
- Support under part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999; or
- Child Tax Credit (but not Working Tax Credit) and have an annual income (as assessed by Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs) that does not exceed £16,190
- The Guarantee element of State Pension Credit
- Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit
- Universal Credit
Children who get any of the above benefits in their own right (ie they get benefits payments directly, instead of through a parent or guardian) can also get free school meals.
YOU CAN CHECK IF YOU ARE ELIGIBLE ONLINE HERE:
https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/residents/education-and-learning/free-school-meals
OR GET IN TOUCH WITH BENEFITS INFORMATION
- Email: Benefits@cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk
- Telephone: 0300 123 7021, Monday to Friday 8am to 7pm
- By post: Revenues and Benefits Department, PO Box 187, Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, CH34 9DBIf your child may be eligible because of your family’s income level, please register them; even if you do not wish them to have the meals, this would mean our school could still claim Pupil Premium Funding that can be used to help your child’s education.
How do we spend the Pupil Premium Grant?
Schools have the freedom to spend the Premium in a way they think will best support the raising of attainment for the most vulnerable pupils. Schools are required to report to parents how they have spent the money allocated. It is important to remember that not all children who are allocated Pupil Premium funding will receive support at the same time. We recognise that not all pupils who receive Free School Meals are socially disadvantaged; we also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered for or qualify for Free School Meals. We allocate the Pupil Premium Grant to support any pupils who are eligible along with those that the school has identified as being socially disadvantaged.
What are our pupils’ main barriers to educational achievement?
- Some of our children have had events in their lives which mean that they are not always ready to focus on learning. These can occur over time or in some cases may have been a historic incident which has had a significant impact.
- Support at home is not always available due to parents not having the skills and/ or confidence to help their child to learn.
- A number of pupils display specific learning difficulties such as dyslexic traits so struggle to: record their learning, remember things and organise themselves.
- WellComm assessments carried out upon entry into school indicate that a high proportion of our children struggle to communicate effectively due to speech and language needs. Many of our children are not raised in a language rich environment.
- Due to their cultural capital, some of our children have not had a variety of rich experiences from which they can draw upon when learning.
- The impact of lockdown and the coronavirus pandemic is felt sharply by pupils, with the first school closure hitting hardest. A lack of devices and sufficient platform to enable remote learning combined with poor engagement from some families meant that pupils did not access learning.
How is Pupil Premium used to support pupils at Parklands Community Primary & Nursery School?
The Pupil Premium Grant has enabled us to continue to develop and provide high levels of additional support for pupils. We have used the grant in a variety of ways over the years including:
- Two full time Learning Mentors supporting children and families
- Additional teacher in Y6
- Subsidising residential visits, clubs, curriculum trips and visitors to enrich our children’s lives
- Additional TAs to support teaching and learning and for specific intervention
- Subsidising music lessons
- Subsidising before and after school club to ensure the cost is reduced for parents
- CPD for staff with a focus on English and Maths; high quality strategic training for all leaders
- Moderation and advice from consultants in English and maths
- Developing the outside environment to provide increased learning opportunities
- Buying additional resources to enable us to deliver high quality teaching and learning
- Seconding additional leadership to accelerate school improvement
- Wide ranging interventions to support mental health
What is the Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP)?
The EYPP is for children from low income families (defined as meeting the criteria for free school meals); children that have been looked after by the local authority for at least one day; have been adopted from care; have left care through special guardianship; and children subject to a child arrangement order setting out with whom the child is to live (formerly known as residence orders).
High quality early education makes a difference to children’s academic attainment. This funding aims to give children the best start to their education.
How does Parklands use EYPP?
We have used EYPP in a variety of ways, focused on individual needs of our children including:
- Resources to develop speaking and listening, promote reading especially for boys, encourage gross and fine motor control, develop an understanding of number
- Interventions to help with speaking and listening (such as Elklan)and fine motor control
- Electronic equipment such as talking clipboards to support learning
- Additional staff support to deliver high quality teaching and learning
How do we measure the effect of the pupil premium?
The impact of Pupil Premium is measured in a variety of ways. This includes looking at pupil outcomes (including performance data at the end of key stages); pupil & parent voice; attendance; impact of safeguarding and welfare interventions. The Pupil Premium Strategy documents at the bottom of the page provide further details.
Our Pupil Premium Leaders, Mrs Cairns & Miss Hughes, along with the Governors, will publish information annually on how the Pupil Premium Grant has been spent (see documents below) to ensure that all our children can be the best they can be. Governors review the strategy during School Improvement Committee meetings.
Our Pupil Premium strategy is reviewed annually which is overseen by our Pupil Premium governors and Concordia Multi-Academy Trust CEO. Our next review will be in September 2024.
What catch-up funding is for?
The government announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up lost time after school closure. This is especially important for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds. This funding includes:
- a one-off universal £650 million catch up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time
- a £350 million National Tutoring Programme to provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people who need the most help, which includes:
- a schools programme for 5 to 16-year-olds – for more information, see the National Tutoring Programme FAQs
- a 16 to 19 tuition fund
an oral language intervention programme for reception-aged children
How are Parklands using the Catch-Up Funding?
We use the phrase ‘recovery funding’ and ‘recovery curriculum’ to describe the programme designed to enable pupils to return to school happily and successfully and make rapid progress academically. We have set out wide ranging ways in which the funding is used which is set out in the document below.