Pupil Premium Strategy Statement pre-2021

Pupil premium is additional funding to help schools support children to improve their outcomes. Pupil premium funding can bring many advantages to your child including school based interventions, tutoring, attendance on school trips, learning support, extra curricular activities and after school provision (eg. clubs). It could also mean your child might be entitled to free school meals in the future.

If you are in receipt of any of the following, pupil premium funding may be available for your child.

Income Support
Income-based Jobseekers Allowance
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
The guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit Universal Credit

If this applies to you, please contact the school office.

Pupil Premium / Looked After Children / Previously Looked After Children Allocation Academic Year 2020 – 2021

Our Principles for Tackling Educational Disadvantage

At Writtle Infant School we believe in an excellent education and the highest expectation for all, regardless of background or barriers to learning. We believe that Pupil Premium should support educational attainment and progress but also needs to be used to raise expectations and help children to be ready to learn. We believe that High-quality teaching and learning should be prioritised over intervention and is ultimately the responsibility of the class teacher.

Pupil Premium intervention in our school focuses on each individual need of each disadvantaged pupil. Research from the National Governors’ Association shows that family life, low attendance and social and emotional barriers to engagement emerged as some of the common barriers to educational achievements and we strive to find the balance between tackling those barriers, for example with counselling, family support and nurture groups, forest schools as well as support in academic subjects. We find that speech and language is also a key barrier to learning and we have a dedicated LSA and other members of staff trained in intervention.

Provision will be bespoke per child based on their ‘fluid’ needs and these can vary at any given time.

All members of staff at Writtle Infant School accept responsibility for meeting the pastoral, social and academic needs within the school environment of all pupils and are committed to ‘Narrowing the Gap’ for vulnerable pupils.
We acknowledge that in our school we have to take into account the achievements across the board for Premium children, in our school currently 45% of our premium children are also children with SEND, therefore their achievements towards their own personal targets must be acknowledged.
We work together to create an overall package of support aimed to tackle the range of barriers including; attendance, behaviour, external factors, professional development focussing on improving outcomes for eligible pupils, improving the quality of teaching and learning, language acquisition, parental engagement, opportunities for first-hand experiences and development of literacy and numeracy skills.
We use our own in-house assessment system to track and enable thorough analysis of data (Reading, Writing and Maths) to identify pupils who are underachieving and why.
The Pupil Premium governor and the Headteacher have a clear overview of how funding is allocated and the difference it is making to the outcomes of pupils termly which is shared with the whole governing body.
We ensure that all teaching and support staff know which pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium so they can take responsibility for accelerating progress and accountability is shared across the school.
The Governing Body is ambitious for pupils and closely monitors the school’s effectiveness in closing the gap between different groups of pupils. They receive a termly anonymised report on each child in receipt of PP.

Our Pupil Premium allocation for 2020/2021 was £30,900 based on 16 children receiving £1345 and 4 children receiving £2345. We have been very proactive in encouraging parents to apply for pupil premium and we have tracked parents who may be eligible and contacted them gently and sensitively. We review our allocation at least once a term in conjunction with pupil progress meetings.

Attendance is one of the key issues we track and the average attendance during 2018/2019 for the children in receipt of PP was 93.9%, compared to a whole school rate of 96.3%. Due to lockdown figures for 2019/2020 are not relevant. During the period of school closure we have particularly focused on involving hard to reach parents of children with PP and reviewing our transition arrangements. We also supported vulnerable families with access to technology, ensuring they received Free School Meal Vouchers and supplies for home education such as writing aids and access to high quality texts.

Please note that achievement data for 2019-2020 is not relevant due to the period of school closure.

Pupil Premium was allocated as follows in this financial year:

Resource

Purpose

Impact so far

Approx. Cost

Teaching Assistant Support / Teaching staff / Other support

Extra adult support for those pupils experiencing learning, behaviour or emotional difficulties.

We have a full time Level 3 ELKLAN trained LSA. Most children on our PP register receive support from her.

Extra support for those pupils experiencing learning, behaviour or emotional difficulties. This can include nurture groups and counselling.

We have a LSA trained in Forest Schools and all children in receipt of Pupil Premium have benefited from this support. In addition this provides time for one to one/small group intervention weekly in Years One and Two.

Disadvantaged pupils are better able to access the curriculum appropriate to their individual needs.

Speech and Language support is offered as soon as the children who need it enter our school. 65% of our current children in receipt of PP have support within school.

Being school ready is a key need and we recognise that we often have to address social and emotional needs to prepare children to be ready for learning, including LSA support when visiting before starting in our school.

£29,900

Financial Support for school visits, clubs, sporting & cultural events, personal items

Enabling access to a rich and varied school experience for all.

Eligible pupils are able to attend and experience these enrichment activities.

We enrich the healthy lifestyle of disadvantaged children and enable them to attend events and have a cultural enrichment that would not normally be available.

Uniform, transport and other support ensures that disadvantaged children can take pride in their appearance and be school ready. Consequently their attendance is good.

We will provide funding for all children in receipt of PP to attend a club, when Covid procedures allow.

We ensure that all children in receipt of PP take part in events, e.g. the Chelmsford Music Festival, and ensure that transport is in place.

We have asked children to choose books just for them, to foster a love of reading.

We provide for needs such as uniform, musical instruments and transport.

We have provided a personalised curriculum when necessary, for example buying individual science equipment, one to one forest schools sessions and, when there are special events such as a workshop from the Junk Orchestra, extending the booking to include one to one sessions.

We support some children with counselling.

We support children’s individual talents, for example by providing piano lessons.

£1000

Pupil Premium Allocation 2019-20

Our Pupil Premium allocation for 2019/2020 was £26,880, based on 14 children receiving £1320 and 4 children receiving £2100.

Due to Lockdown, information on achievement data is not available but we have used the money for individual support both in and out of school.

Pupil premium was allocated as follows for this academic year: