Pupil Premium

The government believes that pupil premium, which is in addition to main school funding, is the best way to address inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their wealthier counterparts by ensuring that funding to redress disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

National research shows that children who have been eligible for FSM at any point in their school life generally have consistently lower educational attainment than those who have never been eligible.

It is also worth noting that some pupils entitled to FSM also face often multiple vulnerabilities which can be a barrier to good achievement. Northowram Primary School therefore deploys pupil premium to plan and promote effective intervention and additional support in order to eradicate these barriers over time and accelerate pupil progress, closing the attainment gap between FSM and non-FSM children.

Eligibility for Pupil Premium

The most disadvantaged pupils, including all children who are looked after (CLA), will benefit from the recent increase which takes the current value of the FSM pupil premium to £1320.00 per pupil. Any child that has been registered for FSM in the past six years – known as the “ever 6”, will qualify for this funding.

Eligible for FSM

The Department for Education (DfE) define eligibility as those pupils for whom a claim has been made and where the claim has also been approved by the local authority (LA). It is therefore important that all parents whose children are eligible for FSM register (even if you decide your child will bring sandwiches for lunch and school can provide these) in order that school receives funding to support their education. National data demonstrates that up to 5% of school children could be missing out on this funding. Children receive a hot meal and parents can save a significant sum of money over a year.

School also receives additional resources to support pupil learning. In short, everyone is a winner! Pupils in Key stage 1 and Foundation Stage are entitled to a free school meal regardless so it is crucial that parents who are entitled still register. If you don’t, school will miss out on the funding and so will the child.

Children Looked After (CLA), adopted children and forces children

As CLA often face additional barriers to learning, these pupils will also receive additional funding

How is Northowram Primary School accountable for the pupil premium?

Robust tracking of pupil achievement is in place to immediately identify pupils who are under achieving, target effective intervention and support to accelerate progress towards age related expectations, rigorously monitored over time. Obviously, good teaching narrows gaps between those learners who are vulnerable and those that are not. Effective feedback and guidance to pupils is evidenced to be one of the most effective methods of accelerating progress, integrated where necessary with support (sometimes from other agencies) to assist vulnerable families.

These activities are evidenced by the Education Endowment Foundation to have high impact on accelerating pupil progress and attainment.

Monitoring Impact and Success

Accelerated progress targets are set for each child who is eligible for pupil premium and rates of individual progress are monitored by class teachers and, for each class, by the leadership team of the school. In turn, this progress is reported to the Governors’ School Improvement Committee by the head teacher termly. Progress is measured by the number of national curriculum points each child achieves each term and the number of points progress they achieve over time. Provision for pupils for whom pupil premium provides additional support is also measured through observations of lessons (how much progress they make) and scrutiny of their work (to measure progress over time).