Pupil Premium

PUPIL PREMIUM POLICY

At St Stephens Community Academy, we believe that all our children have an equal entitlement, and should have an equal opportunity to:

Develop imagination and creativity
Acquire skills and knowledge
Have a love of learning and a wish to achieve

The school receives funding from the Government to support it in trying to meet this aspiration. This is known as the Pupil Premium.

Pupil Premium is additional funding, from the Government, provided to schools for supporting pupils from low income families to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as all other children. There are three categories of children that qualify for pupil premium:

Children who are eligible for free school meals (FSM)
Looked after children
Armed forces children

As a school we plan carefully how the Pupil Premium funding is spent to ensure that we meet the needs to the children eligible. The Pupil Premium is allocated to schools with pupils on roll in January that are known to have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any time in the last six years. Each of these pupils will attract an amount of money. Schools have the freedom to spend the Premium, which is part of the school’s budget, in a way they think will best support the raising of attainment for the most vulnerable pupils. As a school we monitor the impact of the additional provision provided to ensure that it is effective in raising attainment and increasing the progress of these pupils. All our staff and governors have responsibility for ‘socially disadvantaged’ pupils and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within a caring environment. The targeted and strategic use of pupil premium will support us in achieving our vision.

Principles

We seek to ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all of the pupils;
We seek to 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;
In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged;
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 in need of intervention and support;
Pupil premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals.

Provision

The range of provision the staff and Governors consider making for this group include:

Providing 1-1 and small group work focused on overcoming gaps in learning;
Additional teaching and learning opportunities provided through trained LSA's, tutors or teachers.
The majority of our work through the pupil premium will be aimed at accelerating progress moving children to at least age related expectations. Initially this will be in communication, English and maths;
In addition, the school recognises that the wider curriculum supports and enriches children’s development in communication, English and maths, and therefore funding will also be allocated to enable children to participate fully and actively in a wider curriculum and extra-curricular activities;
Pupil premium resources may also be used to target able children on Free School Meals to achieve greater progress;
Provision will not be aimed at statemented children as funding for need is already in place.

Reporting

It will be the responsibility of the Headteacher and SENCo to report to the Governors on:

The progress made towards diminishing the difference, for pupil premium pupils;
An evaluation of the cost effectiveness and impact of the provision in terms of the progress made by the pupils receiving a particular provision.
Parents will receive information as to the progress of pupils through personal information sent home on individual education plans and through reporting of assessment results at mid-year parent meetings and reports at the end of the academic year. Additional, extended meetings with class teachers will be held to support pupils further.
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 ‘diminishing the difference', for socially disadvantaged pupils. This task will be carried out within the requirements published by the Department for Education and will appear on our school website.