Pupil Premium

Policies / Pupil Premium

Principles

All members of staff, governors and teaching assistants accept responsibility for ‘socially disadvantaged’ pupils and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs within the school and the local community.

As with every child in our care, a child who is considered to be ‘socially disadvantaged’ is valued, respected and entitled to develop to his/her full potential, irrespective of need.

Background

The pupil premium is a Government initiative that targets extra money at pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, which research shows underachieve compared to their peers.

The Government have used pupils entitled to Free School meals, Looked After Children, Adopted Children and children whose parents are in the Armed Services as an indicator for disadvantaged, and have deployed a fixed amount of money to schools per pupil, based on the number of pupils registered in each category. At Applemore, we will be using the indicator of those eligible for Free School meals as well as identified vulnerable groups as our target children to ‘narrow the gap’ regarding attainment.

Provision

In order to meet the above requirements, the Governing Body of Applemore will ensure that provision is made which secures the teaching and learning opportunities that meet the needs of all pupils.

As part of the additional provision made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups, the Governors of the school will ensure that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed through the Pupil Premium Strategy Statement. Pupil Premium - Applemore College

In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, the Governors of the school recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged.

The Governors also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. The Governors reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil of groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged or at risk.

The range of provision

• Facilitating pupils’ access to education
• Facilitating pupils access to the curriculum
• Additional teaching and learning opportunities
• Facilitating the use of before and after school opportunities run by the school.
• The purchase of equipment (for the school) that will facilitate better learning opportunities
• The part-funding of educational visits in order to address underlying inequalities of socially disadvantaged pupils who are progressing beyond expectation.
• Pupils will be able to access funding for experiences in addition to educational visits and targeted support for individuals through both tutor and HOY.

The Headteacher, alongside the Senior Management Team, will maintain an ongoing programme of support for socially disadvantaged pupils, which will be subject to the oversight of the Governing body.

Reporting

It will be the responsibility of the Headteacher to produce a termly report for the Governor’s Committee on:

• The progress made towards narrowing the gap, by year group, for socially disadvantaged pupils.
• An outline of the provision that was made during the term since the last meeting.
• Pupil case studies to show the impact of the spending on learning outcomes.

It will be the responsibility of the main Governing body to ensure an outline of the school’s progress towards ‘narrowing the gap’ for socially disadvantaged pupils is given to the school’s Governors on a termly basis.

Success Criteria

The success criteria for the Policy are:

• Having a whole-school approach.

• Having an effective system for identifying, assessing and monitoring pupils


• Early intervention and support for socially disadvantaged childre


• Attendance will be improved


• An increasing majority of socially disadvantaged children will meet their individual targets for attainment


• An increasing majority of socially disadvantaged children will meet their individual targets for progress


• Effective parental pupil school support.


• Maximising opportunities for cultural capital


•  Create a positive school atmosphere in which pupils’ differences are recognised and valued as full members of the school community; developing confident and independent learners.


• The different strategies of the policy will be evaluated for success and learning points

Appeals

Any appeal in connection with the disposition of the pupil premium funding will be dealt with through the Governors’ appeals panel.