St Mark's CofE Junior School

Pupil Premium

Pupil premium is additional funding allocated to all schools in England to support disadvantaged learners (DL) and close the gap between them and their peers. This budget includes pupils who are currently entitled to free school meals, have been free schools meals in the past six years (FSM ‘Ever 6’), children that are cared for or adopted from care and children whose parents are in the armed forces

You can find out more about support for young people by clicking here.

How should the money be spent?

It is entirely up to individual schools to decide how the pupil premium is spent, however there is an expectation that schools can prove the impact this money has had on its disadvantaged pupils. It is imperative that as a school we fully understand each of our disadvantaged pupils and know exactly what they need to help them to ‘be the best they can be’ in their learning. At St Mark’s our approach is simple; we invest our time in getting to know our pupils really well, not just their academic ability and progress but also the whole child. We work hard to fully understand what support a pupil may need to help them achieve in a specific area and we involve them in the process.

We acknowledge that no one child is the same and therefore ensure the support they receive is tailored to their individual needs; whether it be welfare support, individualised learning programmes, enrichment activities to boost confidence, self-esteem and general enriching experiences or even support to develop friendships.

Our approach

At St Mark’s we seek to ensure the effectiveness of our use of the pupil premium. We recognise that barriers to achievement take a variety of forms and therefore attempt to be innovative in the support that we provide. We use entry and exit judgments for all support that is being put in place and carefully track them to ensure progress is being made at all times. We evaluate our support plans throughout their timescales and we are not afraid to make changes if we feel this is appropriate. We do this by offering our children a wide range of opportunities and ensuring that these are accessible for everyone. We work with our families and colleagues to make sure everyone has high aspirations for all pupils. We ensure pupil premium children are well represented and have a voice on our school council, learning council and other pupil groups.

Some ways in which we have spent or plan to spend the money

Enriching the curriculum

  • Quality first teaching strategies
  • Deepened understanding of all pupils
  • Subsidised class trips
  • Workshop and theatre performances

Targeted support

  • Tailoring interventions to suit each child
  • Reading support teacher
  • Small group support
  • Booster groups
  • One-to-one tuition for able and underperforming pupils
  • Speech and language support
  • Homework clubs

Wellbeing support

  • Family Support Worker – supporting the whole family
  • High quality wrap around care
  • Emotional literacy support assistant (ELSA)
  • Pupil coaching
  • Friendship circles

Staff training

  • Staff training, for example ICT programmes
  • Intensive training for teaching staff in further developing quality first teaching strategies in the classroom

Extending school support

  • Subsidised school journeys
  • Subsidised music lessons

Parental engagement

  • Reading and maths workshops for parents
  • Drop-in sessions to meet the inclusion manager

How we plan to demonstrate impact of spending

  • We now have DL Lead (DLL) who is part of the senior leadership team of the school
  • Pupil premium is very much at the top of the schools agenda and tracking systems have been put in place to show the impact of each intervention being provided
  • Advice and support has been sought from a variety of agencies in order to ensure we are being innovative in the way the money is being spent and maximum impact is being achieved
  • The DLL has attended specific training on getting value for money with the PPG funding
  • A designated governor has been allocated to ensure the PPG is being effectively spent.

Pupil Premium Strategy 2023 - 2024

Pupil Premium Spending Impact Report 2022-2023

The next Pupil Premium review will take place in December 2024