Our Pupil Premium Documents
he Pupil Premium was introduced in April 2011 and is allocated to schools to work with pupils who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’). The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. Whilst schools are free to spend the Pupil Premium as they see fit, they are required to publish online information about how they have used the Premium and the impact it is having.
Who receives the Pupil Premium?
Pupil Premium is allocated to pupils in school from Reception to Year 11 from low-income families who are registered for FSM, or who have been registered for FSM at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6’), together with children that have been in care continuously for six months or more. Early Years Premium funding is also allocated to Nursery and Reception children. Funding is available for pupils for whom one or both parents work in the armed forces.
Pupil Premium Impact at Somerlea Park Junior School
Our most recent Ofsted report highlighted that historically Somerlea Park Junior School hasn’t always made effective use of the Pupil Premium funding:
‘The pupil premium funding has not been used effectively to improve the achievement of eligible pupils.’
‘In 2016, pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds did less well than their classmates and other pupils nationally. This is because leaders have not used the pupil premium funding effectively to raise pupils’ achievement.’
(March 2017)
This previous ineffectiveness has led to a full overhaul and review of how Pupil Premium is spent in school. As a result, the recently devised Pupil Premium plans and spending allocations draw upon EEF Research principles, examples of strong practice (from within and outside Learners’ Trust), data trends and information from within the school, as well as what we know about our children at Somerlea Park Junior. Progress towards objectives, outcomes and the impact of the spending are monitored carefully at regular intervals (precise dates are specified within the plan).
Within our planning documentation we have carefully spent the Premium in a variety of ways to enable pupils to access a wide variety of life experiences that might otherwise be inaccessible. Furthermore individual staff have been deployed in a focused and targeted manner to ensure that all children eligible for the Pupil Premium receive high quality teaching and learning experiences, thus enabling them to achieve their full potential.
Our Pupil Premium ambitions
‘To become one of the top 17% of schools in the country, where pupil premium children outperform the national average in all subjects, for all children.’
And in line with the Learners’ Trust vision…
‘Our goal is to create the best learning experiences possible to enrich lives and enable choice.’
and our own Somerlea Park vision…
‘Believe. Achieve. Succeed.’
Pupil Premium: The Somerlea Park Junior way…
Regardless of their prior attainment and ability, all children eligible for the Pupil Premium will receive academic support to enable them to achieve their potential. Additional support staff are funded so that support is in place for selected groups of pupils at any given time. At Somerlea Park Junior School we provide in class support during English and Maths lessons, dependent on the needs of the child. In addition, we use additional staff to support children at playtimes, this takes the form of one to one support or small group restorative practice. Additional staff also support children at lunchtimes by providing children a place to complete reading or homework. Careful monitoring and evaluation of the Pupil Premium strategies we use takes place to ensure our work in this area provides value for money and also has a strong, positive impact on the progress and outcomes of individual children. An example of how we enact this is through the time given to our regular pupil progress meetings and how appraisal is utilised to improve outcomes for children eligible for the Pupil Premium.
Learners Code is a system used in many Learners’ Trust schools. At Somerlea Park, the Learner’s Code enables us to challenge and motivate our Pupil Premium children to earn Dojos for all aspects of their learning behaviour. The children can then use their Dojos to spend in our Brainsbury’s shop. This benefits our children by them feeling motivated to have improved behaviour at playtimes and have a positive attitude to all aspects of their learning.
Beyond the academic, we aspire to support the development of the ‘whole child’ through our Pupil Premium work. We realize to make the best possible start to the day children need a structure but relaxed start, therefore we offer a free Breakfast Club space to every Pupil premium child. We also know that some of our Pupil Premium children need additional social and emotional support, therefore we offer one to one and group Nurture support. This is a tailor made program to suit the needs of the child. We also employ a Family Support Worker to offer support to parents of Pupil Premium children. Priority is given to our Pupil Premium children for afterschool clubs and extra-curricular activities. As part of our Cluster of schools, we offer a wide variety of enhanced learning experiences or experiential learning which priority is given to Pupil Premium children. These take the form of Forest School Days, Science Days or Sporting events. SMSC is incorporated into all our Project Based Learning to ensure that we are meeting Pupil Premium children’s social and emotional needs.
We work closely with families and their children to provide good or better attendance for all pupils. The daily monitoring by the Family Support Worker and our nominated TAs help us to monitor the attendance and punctuality of Pupil Premium children. The resultant liaison with families helps to facilitate strong partnerships between school and home, as well as enabling all children to gain their statutory entitlement of full-time schooling. A range of reward systems underpin and help reinforce these monitoring strategies.
A proportion of the Pupil Premium has been used to subsidise off-site visits, experiences and support extra-curricular activities where cost may have prohibitive to some families. We work carefully to ensure that all children feel part of the school community. An example of this is our commitment to allocate money to providing a uniform to each eligible child within the school.
Could my child be eligible for free school meals/pupil premium?
