Pupil Premium
St James’ Lanehead developing and delivering an effective strategy
As a school our Governing Board works with the local authority to ensure that we make best use of the Pupil Premium funding which we receive.
- We have identified the specific challenges faced by our disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils.
We use the Education Endowment Fund’s (EEF) diagnostic assessment for understanding the specific elements of education that pupils are finding challenging. We have developed an understanding of non-academic challenges that pupils are facing that are negatively affecting their education and impact their access to teaching, for example:
- attendance and levels of persistent absence and lateness
- behaviour incidences and exclusions data
- wellbeing, mental health and safeguarding concerns
- access to technology and educational materials
- high mobility
When identifying the challenges our school faces, we have drawn on a range of data sources including discussions with teachers and support staff and engagement with pupils and families.
- We have created a strategy plan to address the key challenges.
We have considered taking a longer-term approach to use our pupil premium funding and have created a 3 year plan.
Our plan focuses on the controllable challenges that are having the most significant adverse impact on our disadvantaged pupils.
We have used a balanced structure to help map out our approach. We have used the EEF’s Pupil Premium Guide as it recommends that we adopt a tiered model which focuses on:
- high-quality teaching
- targeted academic support
- wider strategies
We consult with our school community and have consulted with the relevant external partners, such as the Virtual School Head.
- We use evidence to assess the merit of any activity we are considering implementing at our school
We have:
- consulted a wide range of independent, high-quality reviews of evidence, such as the evidence summariespublished by EEF.
- assessed whether the evidence is based on a context relevant to your school
- considered how to be an effective consumer and challenge evidence claims made by external providers
We have evidenced the impact of activity that has helped us to set the outcomes that we want to achieve by the end of our plan.
- Implementation of the plan
We have considered:
- how to integrate the activity within our the curriculum
- what changes will be needed to existing ways of working
- which pupils will get what activity, when and in what group size
- how to ensure all staff promote the principles and ethos of your strategy, such as high aspirations for all.
- professional development requirements, taking the standard for professional developmentinto account
- the requirements of external providers if we are using them
- what data and resources will be required to monitor the impact of each activity.
We will use the EEF’s Putting Evidence to Work – A School’s Guide to Implementation to support our decisions
- Evaluation of the strategy
When we evaluate the impact;
- we will measure our success based on outcomes for disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils
- we will implement a robust and transparent evaluation framework and report outcomes against this
- we will ensure evaluation is an ongoing process – we will consider that the strategies that have been effective in one year may not continue to be effective and we will adapt if needed
- Sustaining our strategy
The outcomes of our evaluation will inform our decision making whether to sustain or stop each activity.
Where we see that a strategy is successful, we believe that it is particularly important to continue monitoring implementation. We are aware that the enthusiasm for some approaches may reduce in subsequent years and there may be additional professional development and resources likely to be required for new and existing staff to maintain successful outcomes.We believe that in taking a longer-term approach by planning our use of pupil premium over multiple years (3 years is recommended) can make it easier for us to plan our spending, recruitment, teaching practice and staff development.
- Who will benefit?
Non-eligible pupils
We will not solely spend our pupil premium so it solely benefits eligible pupils. We will use it to support other pupils with identified needs. For example, we might decide to spend it on pupils who do not get free school meals but:
- have or have had a social worker
- act as a carer
We know that the evidence indicates across the English school system that using your pupil premium funding to improve teaching quality is the most effective way to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. By doing so, we will inevitably benefit non-eligible pupils as well.
Academically able pupils
Evidence shows that academically able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are most at risk of under-performing. These pupils will receive just as much focus in our use of pupil premium as less academically able pupils.
Pupil premium plus
Pupil premium plus is funding to help improve the attainment of looked-after children and previously looked-after children. As with pupil premium, it is not a personal budget for individual children.
Children who are looked after by the local authority
For looked-after children, pupil premium plus is managed by each local authority’s Virtual School Head for the purpose of supporting their educational attainment.
Our designated teacher works with Virtual School Heads to ensure that pupil premium plus for looked after children in our school is used to meet the needs identified in their personal education plans.
Pupils who were previously looked after by the local authority
Pupil premium plus for previously looked-after children is managed by the child’s school, alongside their pupil premium funding. The designated teacher has a key role in ensuring the specific needs of previously looked-after children are reflected in how the school uses its funding to support these children.
Our designated teacher:
- ensures adoptive parents and guardians are aware that they can declare their child eligible for pupil premium plus and work with them in deciding how the funding should be used
- consults the Virtual School Head on how to use the funding effectively, where appropriate
- is the main contact for queries about the use of pupil premium plus
Service pupil premium
Service pupil premium is additional funding for schools, but it is not based on disadvantage.
The funding is for pastoral support for eligible pupils.
When we will publish our Strategy statement
We will publish our statement by the 31 December each year. This will enable us to take the needs of your new intake into account.
What we will report on
It will be challenging to evaluate the impact of any activity that is not directly linked to academic outcomes, for example, activity supporting social and emotional wellbeing. We will report to our Governing Board and will write about this in our online statement and refer to our evidence that shows how we are making progress.