Pupil Premium and Strategy 

What is pupil premium funding?

The Secretary of State for Education lays down the following terms and conditions on which assistance is given in relation to the pupil premium grant (PPG) payable to schools and local authorities for the financial year beginning 1^st April.  PPG provides funding for two policies:

• Raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities to reach their potential
• Supporting children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces.

The pupil premium for 2020 to 2021 will include pupils recorded in the 2021 (January 21st) school census who are known to have been eligible for free school meals (FSM) since May 2014, as well as those first known to be eligible in January 2021.

Pupil Premium provides funding for pupils in the following categories:

• Who have been in receipt of free school meals (FSM) since the age of four in year groups reception to Year Six (£1,345)
• Who have been continuously looked after for the past six months (£2,345 per child)
• Who are adopted from care under the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or who have left care under a Special Guardianship or Residence Order (post LAC) £2,345 per child.
• Those children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces or were eligible for funding in the last four years (Ever 4 service child) £310

 Our 2019/2020 allocation was £98,540. The census on January 21st 2021 will confirm numbers and the associated pupil premium finance for 2020-2021.

Evaluating the pupil premium’s impact in the 2019 to 2020 academic year presents difficulties as a result of reduced numbers of pupils having attended between March and July 2020.

Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2020-21

Chesham School is committed to providing high quality education and experiences for all our pupils.

Pupil Premium

The Pupil Premium is funding provided by the Government to schools which is additional to main school funding. It is allocated according to the number of pupils who are eligible for free school meals (FSM), or have been within the past 6 years (Ever6). Amounts are also allocated towards children of service families and to those who have been ‘Looked After’ (in care) for 6 months or more or formally adopted.

All members of staff and governors accept responsibility for ‘socially disadvantaged’ pupils and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within the school environment. At Chesham we are committed to ‘Closing the Gap’ between vulnerable pupils and the pupil premium often forms a vital part of that process.

It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility, specifically for those legitimately identified as being disadvantaged. However, schools are accountable for how they have used the additional funding to support the pupils mentioned above. 

It is the responsibility of the governors to explain pupil premium expenditure to parents in the form of an annual strategy statement. We will publish details on how Pupil Premium has been used within school, details of attainment and progress of pupils who are covered by the premium and interventions that have been supported by the additional funding. Regular updates to Governors will also detail the progress made towards closing the gap. 

Barriers to learning

Oral language skills on entry to school are low. Listening and attention skills are equally low which together hinder reading, writing and phonics attainment in Foundation Stage and KS1.

The ability to manage feelings and behaviour is less well established on entry to school for disadvantaged pupils compared to non-disadvantaged.

Mathematical reasoning skills are lower than non-disadvantaged pupils.

Parental engagement in home reading routines and supporting homework activities is often sporadic for disadvantaged pupils.

Expectations and aspirations are often low.

Deprivation factors: 18.3% of children are eligible for FSM. The school’s deprivation factor is 0.25, which is very slightly above the national average. 23.1% of our children are currently in receipt of pupil premium funding.

A number of families have historically been supported by social care.

Diversity: 29.8% of children are from minority ethnic groups with 11.4% whose first language is not, or believed not to be, English.

And of course the effect of Pandemic may well have had an even greater impact upon those children and families already disadvantaged.

Desired outcomes

All children are afforded the same level of opportunity to develop, succeed and flourish whatever their starting point, status or background.

Increased oral literacy skills in Foundation Stage and through KS1.

Children with social and emotional barriers to learning are identified and provided with targeted support to increase their capacity to engage with learning, leading to increased progress at KS2.

All children have equal access to every curricular and extra-curricular opportunity offered in school.

Children aspire to succeed, progress and achieve, increasing their confidence and resilience.

We ensure all children have access to the same learning during the pandemic, whether remotely or in school.

Planned expenditure and resource allocation

Governors allocate money to support children’s academic and social development; specifically those with language or social and emotional barriers to learning.

This includes the provision of specific intervention programmes or resources such as: Numicon, Word Shark, FFT reading intervention and Memory Magic.

Additionally money is spent on the provision of human resources such as teaching commitment from senior teachers; teaching assistant support; a parent support advisor for those whose learning is impeded due to social or emotional barriers; and a HLTA who has specialist counselling training and is currently working largely with children in Year 5 during the mornings and specific children on a 1:1 basis during the afternoon.

1:1 support with a qualified teacher supports learning in numeracy and literacy.

Money is also put towards individual needs supporting access, for example, to school trips, extra-curricular clubs, daily journeys to school, singing lessons, guitar/ukulele lessons.

Offers of a school place or support with technology as appropriate to children eligible for the pupil premium.

How is need, identified at Chesham School?

1. Advice from parents and family members
2. Ever 6 and FSM data
3. Our on-entry/baseline assessments
4. Our pupil progress meetings
5. Assessments and observations from in house professionals, educational psychologists, counsellors and mentors
6. Advice from parents support, SEN team members, social services, housing and other agencies

Chesham Primary School utilised the pupil premium money in order to meet the following objectives:

1. Raising literacy levels and numeracy skills
2. Raise the standard of teaching and learning through the effective deployment of staff.
3. Improving behaviour and emotional intelligence through extra support for families and carers.
4. Improving the experiences of our pupils through personalised learning, off site visits and extracurricular activities i.e. use of external providers.
5. Accelerating progress and breaking down barriers to learning in order to move children to age relate
6. Ensure equality of access to all of the above.

Chesham School will measure the impact by:

1. Individual Provision maps to measure progress to meet outcomes against individual targets.
2. Evidence based interventions using before and after assessment data.
3. Termly pupil progress meetings informing impact on progress and attainment.
4. Ongoing teacher assessments and standardised tests.

2019 These figures represent the latest published figures following the cancellation of 2020 and 2021 statutory testing.

Attainment Measure

Progress measures