What is the Pupil Premium Grant?

The Pupil Premium is a government grant that targets extra money at pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds. Research shows that these pupils generally underachieve compared to their peers. The premium is given to schools so that they can provide additional support for these pupils and ensure they reach their potential.

The Government calculates how much Pupil Premium money each school receives by looking at the number of children at the school who have been registered for free school meals at any time within the last 6 years, and at the number of children in local authority care.  These are used as general indicators of deprivation. The school then receives a fixed amount of money per qulifying pupil.

The Government is not dictating how schools should spend this money, but schools have to show that they are using it effectively to narrow the achievement gap between children from disadvantaged backgrounds and others. A School’s spending strategy should be informed by research evidence, referring to a range of sources, including the toolkit published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

School performance tables include information about the attainment of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds compared with their peers. This has not been possible for 2020 and 2021 during the pandemic when statutory assessments did not take place.

How does the school use this money?

The school uses the Pupil Premium grant to fund staffing to either run targetted interventions  for pupils from vulnerable groups, or to fund staffing and staff training to improve the quality of teaching & learning which is proven to be the most effective way of raising the achievement of all pupils, expecially disadvantaged pupils, or to support disadvantaged pupils’ access to enriched educational experiences such as music lessons or visits. Governors ensure that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately addressed.  Children’s progress is monitored through termly meetings between the school’s senior management and class teachers, and governors receive reports on the results.

The Governors of the school recognise that not all pupils who are identified as qualifying for PPG will be socially disadvantaged. They also recognise that not all pupils who are disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. The Governors reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being disadvantaged.

The Inclusion Leader, together with the Headteacher and SLT, will maintain an ongoing programme of support for disadvantaged pupils, which will be overseen by the Governors’ Teaching, Learning & Curriculum Committee.

The school’s Governing Body will continue to maintain an oversight of the impact of teaching and learning throughout the school to make sure it meets the needs of all pupils, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Statement of Intent

The core principle underpinning our PPG Strategy is to ensure the attainment/achievement gap between our disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils is narrowed, and ultimately closed. Our intention is that all pupils, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, make good progress and achieve high attainment across all subject areas. The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve that goal, including progress for those who are already high attainers. High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach, with a focus on areas in which disadvantaged pupils require the most support. This is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.

Our Key Objective is therefore “To accelerate progress of disadvantaged/vulnerable pupils, especially those at risk of underachieving”.

Bounds Green Infant Pupil premium strategy statement 2023-24

Bounds Green Junior Pupil premium strategy statement 2023-24