Pupil Premium Strategy
Pupil Premium Overview
Pupil Premium is additional to main school funding. The Government provides this funding to support specific groups of children. We receive Pupil Premium funding for different reasons.
These include:
- Children entitled to Free School Meals (FSM)
- Children ''Looked After'' by the Local Authority
- The children of Armed Service Personnel
"It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools per FSM pupil, is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility" (DfE)
Schools receive the following funding (for the financial year 2024- 2025):
£1,480 per pupil of primary-school age, £1,050 per pupil of secondary-school age, £2,570 per pupil for looked-after children (defined in the Children Act 1989 as one who is in the care of, or provided with accommodation by, an English Local Authority) and £340 per pupil who is has a parent who is serving in HM forces or has retired on a pension from the Ministry of Defence.
Grundisburgh Primary School Pupil Premium Information
For 2024-25 our projected Pupil Premium allocation is £28,120. Currently we have 9.3% of our school population who are Pupil Premium. This is slightly below the National Average of Pupil Premium children in schools of which the most recent data is 25.9%.
We monitor closely the performance of all children in the school and in particular the performance of those that the pupil premium sets out to support. Teachers regularly meet with the headteacher to discuss the impact of the Pupil Premium. Pupil Premium children’s progress is monitored at termly Pupil Progress Meetings where attainment and progress is scrutinised. This is measured against the national picture for disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged children. We also compare the Pupil Premium group with those that are not eligible to help identify any further trends or barriers. We also measure impact in a variety of other ways; through attendance, the uptake of extra-curricular activities, the low incidence of behavioural issues and by the outcomes of formal tests such as SATs. We measure impact regularly throughout the year but formally on a yearly basis to look at actions needed for the next academic year.
The 2019-20 Attendance figures (pre Covid-19) for Pupil Premium children were 94.79%. There had been an improvement year on year since the academic year 2016-17 where the average Pupil Premium children's attendance was 90.99%. This has declined slightly in the academic year 2021-2022 to 91.6% and then we have worked on improving this. Attendance of Pupil Premium children in the academic year 2023-2024 was 96.5% compared with 96.2% whole school attendance (96.1% non-Pupil Premium peers) so this has been a success.
Date of next Action Plan formal review (although reviewed regularly throughout the year) - October 2024.
Pupil Premium Barriers
The first and most important measure for maximising pupil achievement is high quality teaching. We support our teachers in many ways, for example with additional non-contact time, and challenge them to be ambitious for children’s learning, e.g. through Performance Management Objectives.
Many of our families deal with challenging circumstances with resilience and positivity. Where problems are encountered however, the main barriers to achievement usually relate to one or more of the following:-
|
Barrier to learning |
Percentage of Pupil Premium Children |
|
ACEs |
28% |
|
SEND |
33% |
|
Parental support and engagement |
22% |
|
Anxiety / self esteem |
11% |
|
Behaviour |
6% |
Issues and Attendance
We have a person in the school responsible for Pastoral and Family Support, who is able to respond to the needs of children facing emotionally challenging circumstances. We also have two Lead Thrive Practitioners, two trained members of staff in 'Drawing and Talking' and one in 'Bereavement Counselling Skills.' We also have a member of staff who is a Mental Health First Aider.
Where needed we provide nurture sessions to support pupils who may benefit from a boost to their social, emotional or behavioural needs. Pupils are given whatever help is needed to overcome their individual barriers to learning.
Access to Wider Opportunities & Parental Engagement
All Pupil Premium children have access to lots of free clubs in school and we subsidise one paid club per term too. We pay for School trips and also allow Pupil Premium children access to learn a musical instrument. We started a Breakfast Club in September 2017 as a new way in which we can diminish the barriers that some Pupil Premium children face. We are looking at further ways to improve our offer too and have begun After School Care until 6pm.
We have free spaces for school holiday camps available to vulnerable children for holiday club places during each school holiday should they wish to undertake these.
Support
In addition to the support gained by the above strategies, sometimes we recognise the need to allocate additional targeted resources. A year group with a high level of needs has additional Teacher or TA support to assist with emotional issues and academic progress. The placement of extra Teacher or TA support is reviewed throughout the academic year and is changed on a needs basis.
Date of next review: October 2025
