Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2022-23

Our intention is to provide all children the access and opportunities to enjoy academic success regardless of socio-economic background through primarily being exposed to high-quality teaching of a broad, balanced and enriching curriculum.

We strive to raise the bar of expectations for all students, including our disadvantaged with high prior attainment. In doing so we will raise lifelong aspirations, focus on removing barriers to learning and achieving excellence whilst ensuring that no child is left behind because of socio-economic disadvantage.

We will consider the challenges faced by other vulnerable pupils who may not necessarily fall under the pupil premium category, such as those who have a social worker and young carers. The activity we have outlined in this statement is also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are deemed to be disadvantaged or not.

The academy pays due consideration to its specific context and the subsequent challenges faced before making decisions with regards to the use of Pupil Premium funding. Furthermore, it takes a research based, evidence informed approach and refers to research carried out by expert organisations such as the EEF.

Common barriers to learning for disadvantaged children include: less support at home, weak language and communication skills, lack of confidence, lack of aspirations, more frequent behaviour difficulties, attendance, and punctuality issues. There may also be complex family situations that prevent children from flourishing. The challenges are complex and varied and therefore there cannot be a “one size fits all” approach.

We will ensure that all teaching staff have an appreciation of who the pupil premium students are, what barriers might exist for them and have a comprehensive understanding of the attainment data for those pupils. Consequently, staff will be able to identify strengths and weaknesses from a subject perspective and therefore be able to strategically intervene to close knowledge and skill gaps through tailored high quality first wave teaching, support and intervention. This strong focus on high-quality teaching is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.

In addition to our priority of high quality teaching, we will focus on improving the literacy levels for all, developing emotional resilience and providing targeted wellbeing support and interventions for our most vulnerable, providing enriching experiences outside of the classroom and minimising absence to school. This whole school approach to closing the gap incorporates our whole staff body who will appreciate the crucial role they play in ensuring the educational success of every pupil within our academy.

Our strategy is also integral to wider school plans for education recovery, notably in its targeted support through the National Tutoring Programme for pupils whose education has been worst affected, including non-disadvantaged pupils.

This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.

This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) this academic year to address the challenges listed above.

Total budgeted cost: £827,117

Pupil Premium Strategy Outcomes

This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2020 to 2021 academic year.

• 88% of teachers were rated “effective” or better and 31% were rated as “highly effective” which evidences the impact of the comprehensive CPD offer made available to our staff (weekly CPD training, a bespoke LAT Teach programme to support teacher development, membership to the National College etc) to ensure pupils are exposed to high quality teaching at all times.
• 152 pupils benefitted from the MyTutor programme as part of the National Tutoring Programme.
• IRIS kits have been purchased and form part of the CPD package available to staff to support the ongoing improvement and reflection on practice.
• Attendance for all pupils in the academy is above national average and the academy bought into a service level agreement with the local authority to provide an Attendance Advisory Service. Work is currently ongoing to lower the number of persistent absenteeism and has enabled internal attendance staff to focus on early response contact with parents/carers when pupils are absent from school.
• A new Inclusion & Wellbeing Centre has been constructed with a bespoke space for seclusions separate to an intervention space for therapy, group and one-to-one support and wellbeing sessions. This space has been staffed with a specialist team and there has been a noticeable reduction in FTEs which now sit significantly below the national average. There have been no permanent exclusions since this facility has been established.
• In terms of our vision to ensure that all pupils had access to an electronic device to support them with classwork, homework and other independent learning opportunities, all pupils have now been issued with their own device along with lessons in digital citizenship and an embedded digital strategy which ensures that they are utilised as learning tools on a daily basis.
• Enriching experiences have been provided for pupils with the broadest range of clubs and activities ever on offer. 22% of Y7 PP pupils, 28% of Y8 PP pupils and 24% of Y9 PP pupils attended clubs across the last academic year.
• In terms of developing standards of literacy, all KS3 pupils participated in the Accelerated Reader Programme with year 7 PP pupils making 4 months of progress in their reading age and Y8 PP pupils making 11 months of progress in their reading age (when compared to the year average of 3 months). Progress for Y9 PP pupils was 5 months (below average for the cohort of 8 months of progress).
• We invested in the Herts for Learning reading fluency intervention and 37 pupils took part in the initial programme. On average, pupils made +40 months of progress in their reading comprehension as well as +11.1 months in terms of their reading accuracy by utilising the strategies developed within this programme.

Externally Provided Programmes

Service Pupil Premium Funding