Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2023-24
School overview
| Metric | Data |
| School name | Writtle Infant School |
| Pupils in school | 177 |
| Proportion of disadvantaged pupils | 13.7% Pupil Premium, of which 29.2% SEND |
| Pupil premium allocation this academic year | £32,160 |
| Academic year or years covered by statement | 2023-2024 and 2024-2025 2022-25 |
| Publish date | December 2023 |
| Review date | December 2024 |
| Statement authorised by | Matt Coffey and Esther Burton - Joint Chairs of Governors |
| Pupil premium lead | Tracey Wilson - Head of School |
| Governor lead | Esther Burton/ Joan Gentle |
Funding overview
| Detail | Amount |
| Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year | £32,160 |
| Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year | £2,283.75 |
| Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable) | £0 |
| Total budget for this academic year
If your school is an academy in a trust that pools this funding, state the amount available to your school this academic year |
£34,443.75 |
Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan
Statement of intent
Writtle Infant School strives to offer an excellent education for all children, regardless of their background or barriers to learning. These might include family circumstances, weak language and communication skills, developmental difficulties, poor attendance, and behavioural issues.
Our Pupil Premium strategy enables disadvantaged children to improve their progress and educational attainment, whatever their individual starting points, and to narrow or close the gap between them and their peers. High-quality teaching and learning is core to this strategy, supplemented by carefully designed and appropriate interventions to support learning and development.
We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups the school has legitimately identified as socially disadvantaged.
Intervention needs are based on a range of evidence including assessment, pupil and family voice, observations and an understanding of the challenges of each individual family. We ensure children in receipt of PP can access all opportunities in school and develop the skills and knowledge to become independent learners. We use the EEF Pupil Premium Guide to ensure a balance of teaching, academic support and wider strategies.
The success of this strategy is not just about the number of children who meet the expected standard, it is equally important to demonstrate that we have supported children to become successful individuals who can access the same opportunities as other pupils within the school.
- All members of staff accept responsibility for identifying and meeting the pastoral, social and academic needs of each pupil and are committed to ‘Narrowing the Gap’ for disadvantaged pupils.
- Evidence-based interventions are led by staff with the appropriate training, experience and skills to support children’s needs.
- External provision and advice is sought where necessary.
- We ensure that disadvantaged pupils have equitable access to the school curriculum and its enrichment activities, which include wraparound care, extracurricular provision, school trips, arts and sports opportunities.
- Monitoring and evaluation of provision is regularly undertaken, to ensure that it is effective and adjusted according to need.
- We offer additional support with children’s transition to school and to the next stage of their learning.
- All staff aim to build strong and secure relationships with children and their families, recognising that this is the best way to support and develop children’s emotional health and resilience and to enable them to make the best possible progress.
- The senior leadership and governing body have a clear overview of how Pupil Premium funding is allocated and its impact on the outcomes of pupils. Anonymised data is shared with the governing body on a termly basis.
Challenges
This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.
| Challenge Number | Detail of challenge |
| 1 | Assessments and observations indicate a need for greater access to social and emotional support. These pupils need to be taught how to self-regulate their behaviour. Interventions aim to increase self-esteem, self-confidence and resilience. Some pupils require additional support to process trauma. |
| 2 | On entry into the Early Years Foundation Stage, our assessments evidence that many disadvantaged children arrive with underdeveloped language and communication skills. 78% of disadvantaged pupils receive extra support for Speech and Language in the Early Years (7/9 pupils).
As communication skills take time to improve, a significant number of pupils continue to receive Speech and Language support across the school. |
| 3 | Our assessments and observations indicate increased knowledge gaps in core subjects for many of our disadvantaged pupils. This leads to them falling further behind age-related expectations, especially in reading, writing, maths and phonics. |
| 4 | Attendance data shows that disadvantaged children's attendance is significantly lower than their peers. This may be caused by a number of factors, including ill health, broken weeks, poor punctuality, challenging family circumstances and transport issues. This has a negative impact on the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils, so families often require support to improve their children’s attendance. |
Intended outcomes
This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.
| Intended outcome | Success criteria |
| Improved social and emotional skills to ensure self-confidence, self-esteem, self-regulation and an ability to develop positive relationships. | Early identification and monitoring of children displaying emotional distress and/or social/behavioural difficulties.
Various levels of support are implemented as appropriate and may include: Discussion with SENCo, LSA based intervention, small group social skills focus, access to external agencies. We are a Trauma Perceptive School and staff have regular training updates. Providing opportunities for disadvantaged children to develop their talents and feel valued. Counselling services for children. |
| Improved communication and language among disadvantaged pupils. | End of EYFS assessments indicate improved attainment in speech, language and communication for disadvantaged pupils, closing the gap with their peers.
Significant evidence of improvement in oral language skills among disadvantaged pupils, which translates to better communication with their peers and enhanced reading and writing ability. |
| To accelerate progress for disadvantaged pupils from their individual starting points and in relation to national data. | Accurate assessment completed, with effective moderation.
Provision mapping effectively identifies strategies. Pupil progress meetings to evaluate provision and identify clear next steps. This will include monitoring of attendance, parental engagement, academic progress and attainment, learning and social behaviours, progress towards individualised outcomes. Tracking of evidence-based interventions. |
| To achieve and sustain improved attendance for all pupils, particularly disadvantaged pupils. | Sustained high attendance for 2023/4 demonstrated by the overall absence rate being no more than 5%.
Reducing the attendance gap between disadvantaged pupils and their non-disadvantaged peers. The percentage of all pupils who are persistently absent being below 4%. |
| Projected spending | £34,443.75 |
Activity in this academic year
This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) this academic year to address the challenges listed above.
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| Target disadvantaged pupils using in house data and provide catch up using our teaching team to close gaps in reading, phonetic understanding writing and maths | Targeted phonics interventions have been shown to be more effective when delivered as regular sessions over a period up to 12 weeks:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonic |
2,3 |
| Little Wandle training and catch up intervention groups - training for all staff to deliver high quality phonic lessons and catch up support | Targeted phonics interventions have been shown to be more effective when delivered as regular sessions over a period up to 12 weeks:
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonic |
1, 2,3,4 |
Targeted academic support
(for example, tutoring, one-to-one support structured interventions)
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| One to one and small group tutoring for identified disadvantaged children in phonics, writing and reading and social and emotional support | Tuition targeted at specific needs and knowledge gaps can be an effective method to support low attaining pupils or those falling behind, both one-to-one:
And in small groups: Phonics approaches have a strong evidence base indicating a positive impact on pupils, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds. Targeted phonics interventions have been shown to be more effective when delivered as regular sessions over a period up to 12 weeks: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonics |
1,2,3 |
Wider strategies
(for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| Social and emotional needs support - personalised programme specific to needs planned and delivered by experienced, trained staff | Interventions which target social and emotional needs seek to improve pupils’ interaction with others and self-management of emotions, rather than focusing directly on the academic or cognitive elements of learning. Three broad categories of SEL interventions can be identified:
|
1 |
| Speech and language support for children in receipt of Pupil Premium | Weak Language and Communication skills.
Higher than average numbers of disadvantaged children access SALT. 50% of our disadvantaged pupils have extra support for Speech and Language |
2 |
| Increased engagement with families to improve attendance of disadvantaged pupils and ensure they are in line with national expectations | Attendance and Punctuality issues. Attendance figures are lower for children in receipt of PP than other children. The DfE guidance has been informed by engagement with schools that have significantly reduced levels of absence and persistent absence. | 4 |
Total budgeted cost: £34,443.75
Part B: Review of the previous academic year
Our assessments indicated that pupil behaviour, wellbeing and mental health were areas that required further support and targeted interventions. This was particularly noticeable for our disadvantaged pupils. Pupil Premium funding was used to provide wellbeing support and targeted interventions where required.
Staff training to develop emotional literacy facilitated targeted support. Timetables were adapted so that weekly lessons could be planned across the school. These addressed needs and complimented the use of Zones of Regulation throughout the school. Individual progress is highlighted in pupils’ PCPs. The majority of pupils can now self regulate their behaviour and disadvantaged pupils are able to use personalised toolkits for additional support.
Personalised speech and language support was delivered by our ELKLAN trained staff. Individual plans were designed providing clear steps and guidance for staff delivering daily support within class. Close tracking and monitoring show good progress and in some cases pupils no longer require additional intervention.
Additional support for phonics resulted in 56% of pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium achieving the Year 1 Phonics screening and 86% in Year 2. 4 out of the 9 Y1 pupils have additional SEND needs and 4 out of 7 Y2 pupils.100% In Y2 pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium without additional SEND needs achieved the Phonics Screen threshold. SEND pupils' scores and progress in phonics rose significantly.
End of KS1 teacher assessment data indicates 57% (4 out of 7 pupils) of Year 2 pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium reached the National expected level in reading, 43% in writing (3 out of 7 pupils) and 71% in maths (5 out of 7 pupils).
4 EYFS pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium did not achieve GLD. They all have additional SEND needs and have made good progress with their individual targets.
Attendance 2022-23
| National | Writtle Infant School | |
| Whole school attendance | 92.5% | 93.7% |
| Whole school unauthorised absence | 2.5% | 0.6% |
| Pupil premium attendance | 88.6% (FSM eligible) | 83.7%* |
| Pupil premium unauthorised absence | 4.9% (FSM eligible) | 0.9% |
*Severe medical issues requiring long-term absence affected our overall attendance figures in the Pupil Premium cohort.
Attendance throughout the year has been in line with, or better than, national figures. Unauthorised absence in the pupil premium cohort, at 0.9%, was significantly lower than the national rate of 4.9%.
Through careful monitoring and working with families, attendance among our disadvantaged pupils rose significantly and is broadly in line with national figures. The levels of persistent absenteeism also reduced considerably.
Externally provided programmes
Please include the names of any non-DfE programmes that you purchased in the previous academic year. This will help the Department for Education identify which ones are popular in England.
| Programme | Provider |
| None |