Pupil Premium
Pupil Premium is additional funding given to publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils to close the gap between them and their peers. Evidence suggests that pupil premium spending is most effective when used across 3 areas:
- high-quality teaching, such as staff professional development
- targeted academic support, such as tutoring
- wider strategies to address non-academic barriers to success in schools, such as attendance, behaviour, and social and emotional support
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) recommends that schools particularly focus their pupil premium on supporting high-quality teaching. Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools are not required to spend all of their allocated grant on eligible pupils.
Schools do not have to spend pupil premium so it solely benefits elegible pupils. They can use it wherever they identify the greatest need. For example, they might spend it on pupils who do not get free school meals but:
- have or have had a social worker
- act as a carer
Using pupil premium funding to improve teaching quality is the most effective way to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. By doing so, schools will inevitably benefit non-eligible pupils as well.
To inform our spend, we have identified that the barriers to achievement for a significant amount of children at Charlestown are:
Speech and language and SEN
Vocabulary development and literacy
Attendance at school
Social skills
Emotional development
Mental health
Wider experiences beyond the Charlestown Community
Our spend reflects all of the above. Impact will be measured in several ways:
Increased attendance
Increased progress and attainment in learning areas, particularly literacy
Increased confidence and attitudes to learning
Reduced behavioural incidents (greater self regulation and self awareness)
Our Pupil Premium lead is Ms Boocker
Our Pupil Premium review team are: The headteacher, Ms Boocker, the CLA lead, the safeguarding team (inlcuding learning mentors).