Pupil Premium

Rationale

All children at all levels must fulfill their potential and this is fostered here at Pinewood through high expectations and high quality Learning and Teaching, which is at the heart of everything we do.

Our curriculum is constantly reviewed and changed to ensure it meets the needs of all children, to inspire and excite learning and we believe consistently excellent teaching in the classroom is the main focus for raising attainment.

We believe that all children should reach their potential regardless of their background. All teachers and teaching assistants at Pinewood are employed to make a difference to all children, to help improve life chances and ensure all, regardless of background achieve their potential. We at Pinewood have the highest expectations of ourselves and all our children.

Pupil Premium funding is allocated to schools based upon the number of children on roll from low income families who are currently known to be eligible for free school meals or have been eligible over the last six years. It also includes children that are ‘looked after’. The funding is provided for the specific purpose of increasing attainment and progress of these groups of children. An additional premium is provided based upon the number of pupils who have a parent working for the armed services. This service premium is designed to address the emotional and social well-being of these pupils.

Pupil premium is a significant amount in the budget and we are committed to ensuring maximum effect.

Barriers for Pupil Premium children can be here at Pinewood:

• Weak language and communication skills
• Poor Literacy and Numeracy skills
• Low aspirations and less support at home
• Troubled families
• Lack of confidence and low self esteem
• Behaviour difficulties
• Poor attendance and punctuality
• Movement between schools (service children and CLA)

In recent years many of our pupil premium children have entered school with attainment well below what is typical for their age. This has been exacerbated since Covid. The challenges are varied and often there are individual issues. At Pinewood we look at the challenges each pupil premium child faces and we endeavour to tailor our provision to meet individual need. Not all children eligible for free school meals are low attaining. Some free school meal children are higher attaining and do not have certain barriers to learning, so we use our Pupil Premium funding to meet their needs in different ways. Through the use of Pupil Premium we aim to narrow the gap between pupil groups, but in particular we aim to raise attainment for all. We aim for all children to make at the very least good, but often accelerated progress from their starting points. Some of our Pupil Premium children at Pinewood also have additional ‘special educational needs’.

Our culture here at Pinewood believes in ALL children and that there are no excuses for under performance. All staff know who the Pupil Premium and vulnerable children are and we tailor our provision to meet the needs of all children.

Underachievement is tackled at all levels and children’s individual needs are carefully considered to support everyone to do their very best. Our strategy plan links closely with our school improvement plan and CPD priorities. We adopt a three-tier approach in which we prioritise high quality teaching and learning for all. Within this we invest greatly in high quality CPD for all staff. Targeted interventions are carefully planned for in-light of children’s needs, including speech & language, reading, writing, maths support. We also invest in wider strategies to support the development of cultural capital, physical and mental wellbeing and attendance.

We will:

• Ensure our pupil premium strategy links to all other aspects of our whole school strategic planning.
• Base our actions on evidence - based on National research.
• Offer a relentless focus on high-quality of curriculum and teaching and learning achieved through high quality training and support. Our actions are measurable with clear success criteria.
• Have a collective sense of mission where all our stakeholders are committed to ensuring that every child deserves an excellent education where learning is irresistible regardless of background or barrier to learning.
• Ensure that our plan will be responsive and flexible to meet any changing local and national needs.
• Ensure that high quality first teaching is offered to all pupils daily.
• Be consistent, share good practice, assess regularly and address any under-performance.
• Offer intervention as necessary, there is a culture here at Pinewood of early, focused, precise and time-limited intervention delivered by high quality teachers and teaching assistants.
• Prioritise staff well-being as disadvantaged children are disproportionately affected by staff absence.
• Identify individual as well as whole school barriers to learning and investigate whether individuals have multiple barriers.
• Ensure pupil premium and the progress and needs of our children are regularly discussed at staff meetings.
• Offer early morning learning and after school learning for targeted children.
• Provide early intervention in the Early Years foundation Stage especially in the form of language intervention.
• Provide individualised additional reading support (Read Praise Prompt/10 Minute Read/)
• Small group and additional phonics teaching if required.
• Provide emotional coaching and support to individuals and small groups.
• Higher ability focus groups to ensure even our highest ability disadvantaged children further their attainment and educational potential with increased challenge.
• Improve attendance which has been exacerbated since Covid.
• Provide support for parents and work in partnership with them on how they can help their child.
• Listen to the views of children and parents/carers.

Pupil Premium allocation at Pinewood:

For 2015-16, our school received an allocation of £71,280 plus £7,600 for 4 Looked After Children.

For 2016-17, our school received an allocation of £69,960 plus £5,700 for 3 Looked After children and £600 for 2 service children

For 2017-18, our school received an allocation of £59,400 plus £9,500 for 5 Looked After children and £600 for 2 service children

For 2018-19, our school received an allocation of £54,129 Pupil premium plus £9,200 for 4 Looked After Children and £900 for 3 service children

For 2019-20, our school received an allocation of £64,680 plus £6,900 for 3 Looked After Children  and £900 for 3 service children

For 2020-21, our school received an allocation of £56,490 plus £2,345 for 1 Looked after Child and £930 for 3 service children

For 2021-22 our school has received an allocation of £55,145 plus £2345 for 1 Looked after Child and £1860 for 6 service children

For 2022-23 our school has received an allocation of £55,595 plus £2410 for 1 Looked after Child and £1920 for 6 service children plus £6090 for Recovery Premium Funding

For 2023-24 our school has received an allocation of £77,329 Plus funding for 3 Looked after children (see Pupil Premium /strategy 2023-24)