Background
Pupil Premium provides additional funding to enable schools to support disadvantaged, vulnerable pupils and help close the gap in standards achieved.
Pupils eligible for Pupil Premium are:
• pupils who are eligible for Free School Meals
• ever 6 entitlement to Pupil Premium is the number of children who have been registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years
• children who have been looked after continuously for more than 6 months
We also receive additional funding at a lower rate to support:
• children of armed services personnel
Allocation of Pupil Premium Funding
The pupil premium funding is not necessarily intended to be specifically allocated to individual pupils. Schools have the freedom to decide how it can be best spent to ensure that the maximum numbers of pupils are supported. The impact of the individual sums may be limited. Therefore at Ixworth CE Primary School we have pooled the allocated monies to maximise impact. This approach is one taken by many school in using this additional funding.
Strategy
At Ixworth we have adopted a tiered approach to Pupil Premium spending which allows the school to focus on a series of targeted strategies which will have the greatest impact. These are:
1. Teaching:
Spending on improving teaching and providing professional development opportunities is at the forefront of our approach. Ensuring an effective teacher is in front of every class and that every teacher is supported to keep improving, is a key ingredient to the success of our provision and is, therefore, the top priority for our Pupil Premium spending.
2. Targeted academic support:
Evidence consistently demonstrates the positive impact targeted academic support can have. We use a variety of strategies from one-to-one or small group interventions that work alongside to complement and enhance effective classroom teaching and learning.
3. Wider strategies:
The final element of our approach is to provide support in tackling the most significant, non-academic, barriers to success at school, including attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support.
The impact of our strategy is measured every year in our annual Pupil Premium Strategy Report - see below.