The ABC for Disadvantaged Students
Beaumont School’s commitment to exceptional pastoral care, coupled with the excellent classroom teaching across the school, has a particularly positive influence on the outcomes for students who are eligible for Pupil Premium funding (sometimes referred to as ‘students facing disadvantage’). At the heart of our approach is a focus on getting the basics right – high Attendance, positive Behaviour, and a sense of belonging in and contributing to our Community. This focus on the ABC lays the foundation for strong academic outcomes for learners who face disadvantage.
Attendance
Intent
Nationally there is an established pattern of lower attendance for students facing disadvantage.
This can be for a range of reasons, and so the school uses a bespoke approach, tailoring its intervention to meet individual needs and remove barriers to attendance.
Children cannot learn if they are absent from school, and so being present at school is the first step towards academic achievement as well as social and emotional well-being through strong social connections.
Beaumont School will always work hard to ensure that all our children and young people take full advantage of the educational opportunities available to them.
We relentlessly promote regular attendance and punctuality for all our students. In this way, students and their families are supported to engage fully with school and education.
Behaviour
Intent
Access to high quality teaching is repeatedly shown to have the biggest impact on narrowing the attainment gap for students facing disadvantage.
Our aim is to create a climate in which excellent teaching and learning can take place, where there is mutual respect, and where achievement is valued, encouraged and rewarded.
Our behaviour system works around 3 core principles:
- Respect for Yourself
- Respect for Others
- Respect for Learning
The ethos at Beaumont School is that students facing disadvantage must be supported to meet the same expectations as all other students: ‘if I let you off, I let you down.’
Consistency of approach to behaviour across the school is fundamental in ensuring lessons are calm and purposeful, and that high-quality teaching and learning take place as a matter of course.
Community
Intent
In order to flourish, students need to feel a sense of belonging.
Building positive relationships between staff and students is a priority, as well as fostering supportive relationships between students.
Our ethos of ‘Enjoy and Excel’ runs throughout school life, with a focus on ensuring students facing disadvantage feel an active and valued part of our community, and have opportunities to experience success within and beyond timetabled lessons.
Our extra-curricular offer enables students facing disadvantage to participate in a wide range of opportunities that build social capital, as well as social connections, enhancing a sense of belonging.
Nationally there is an established pattern of lower reading ages amongst students facing disadvantage. Difficulty reading can contribute to students feeling that education is ‘not for me.’ Beaumont School’s culture of ‘reading for pleasure’ as well as robust reading interventions aim to support all students to feel that they do belong in school.
Implementation
Attendance of students facing disadvantage is monitored particularly closely to minimise gaps in learning and to support social and emotional well-being. Where attendance falls below expected levels, the school responds quickly to establish the reasons for the absence and to identify any barriers to attendance. This may initially mean the student and parent working with our Attendance Officer or Pupil Premium Administrator.
If attendance concerns persist, this will escalate to oversight and intervention from the Head of Year or Key Stage Leader.
Internal Attendance Support Plans (ASPs) and support from external agencies and/or the Local Authority are implemented when attendance concerns persist.
Every student should have at least one member of staff that they can identify as their ‘go-to’ person, and fostering these relationships is key to re-engaging students with regular attendance.
Implementation
There is a clear behaviour system in place, which is implemented firmly and clearly, but with compassion. There may be underlying reasons for behaviour that falls below our expectations, but these must be addressed rather than accepted and excused.
Two Lead Practitioners spearhead our focus on adaptive teaching, which ensures all students are able to access the curriculum in a meaningful way.
Both academic and pastoral mentoring further supports positive behaviour and study habits and we operate a Peer Mentoring system, pairing KS3 students with trained Sixth Formers.
The Deputy Headteacher, DSL/DT, SENDCo, Head of Key Stage and Head of Year meet on a weekly basis to review the attendance, behaviour and progress of students facing disadvantage and to put in place support and interventions to reduce or remove barriers to their learning.
Implementation
Our PP Coordinator and PP Administrator are in regular contact with students eligible for PP funding, as well as their parents. As such, students and parents have opportunities to build relationships with these key staff and have a space to raise worries or concerns. Having an allocated staff member ‘on their side’ in this way is an important motivator for students and helps to engage parents, enhancing students’ sense of belonging.
PP funding is also used to improve access to equipment and opportunities for students facing disadvantage so that they can fully participate in the wider life of the school.
All students take part in reading lessons in Years 7 and 8, where support, monitoring, assessment and interventions are strong. This embeds our ethos that reading is for everyone and ensures that all students are able to access and feel a part of our academic community.
Impact
Attendance at Beaumont School is exceptionally high; students actively want to be here. This is true for all students, including students facing disadvantage, whose attendance is consistently higher than their peers facing disadvantage nationally.
| Academic Year: 2023-24 | Autumn Term 2024 | |
| Beaumont (whole school) | 94.9% | 95.9% |
| National (all secondary) | 90.9% | 92.0% |
| Beaumont: Disadvantaged | 89.5% | 89.9% |
| National (Free School Meals) | 88.9% | 87.5% |
Impact
Behaviour in lessons across the school is extremely calm and focused. Visitors to the school invariably remark upon this, and this enables high quality teaching to take place.
A survey of all students in Autumn 2024 showed the high regard that students facing disadvantage have for themselves and their education:
- In response to the statement “I feel that my behaviour and conduct in lessons is positive and respectful,” students facing disadvantage scored themselves 4.3 out of 5 on average (4.4 for other students).
- In response to the statement “I put in my best effort in all my subjects,” students facing disadvantage scored themselves 4.2 out of 5 on average (4.2 for other students).
Impact
Students facing disadvantage take part in a wide range of extra-curricular activities. Our annual Wider Participation Surveys show that students eligible for PP funding are fully represented in activities such as residential trips, sports, STEM and arts activities; and cultural enrichment, such as theatre trips.
A survey of all students in Autumn 2024 showed a strong sense of belonging to the Beaumont community:
- In response to the statement “I feel safe and supported by my friends and peers at school,” students facing disadvantage scored themselves 4.4 out of 5 on average (4.5 for other students).
- In response to the statement “I feel positive about my future and the goals I have set for myself,” students facing disadvantage scored themselves 4.0 out of 5 on average (4.1 for other students).
- In response to the statement “I feel part of the Beaumont community,” students facing disadvantage scored themselves 4.0 out of 5 on average (4.0 for other students).
As a result of high Attendance, positive Behaviour, and a strong sense of belonging in and contributing to our Community, Beaumont students who are eligible for Pupil Premium funding achieve very well. We have a strong record where students facing disadvantage not only outperform their disadvantaged peers nationally, but they also outperform their non-disadvantaged peers nationally.
| Academic Year | Progress 8 National (non disadvantaged) | Progress 8 National (disadvantaged) | Progress 8 Beaumont (disadvantaged) |
| 2022-23 | 0.2 | -0.6 | 0.3 |
| 2023-24 | 0.2 | -0.6 | 0.3 |
Put simply, a Progress 8 score of 0 would mean a student had performed at GCSE exactly in line with how their peers with similar primary school data performed nationally. A Progress 8 score of 1 would mean a student had done 1 grade better in every GCSE subject than their peers with similar primary school data nationally. The table above shows that disadvantaged students at Beaumont have outperformed not only their disadvantaged peers, but also non-disadvantaged peers nationally. This has been the case for the past 3 years at least.
Whilst Pupil Premium funding is allocated to eligible students in Years 7-11, we recognise that the impacts of current or historical disadvantage do not stop at age 16. For this reason, we continue to monitor and support eligible students through their Key Stage 5 studies. Students can apply for bursary funding to meet the costs of their course materials and we also link with several outside agencies to provide mentoring to Sixth Form students who were previously eligible for Pupil Premium funding. These students are also prioritised for 1:1 advice and guidance sessions relating to further study and careers. The regular monitoring meetings that take place in Key Stages 3 and 4 continue into Sixth Form, with Deputy Headteacher, SENDCo, DT/DSL, Head of Sixth Form and Head of Year meeting to discuss feedback from teachers as well as attendance, behaviour and progress data. Sixth Form students who were previously eligible for Pupil Premium funding perform very well at A Level. Whilst national comparisons are difficult to make at Key Stage 5, the attainment gap at the end of Year 13 is minimised:Sixth Form students facing disadvantage
| Academic Year | Average ‘A’ level grade (whole school) | Average ‘A’ level grade (disadvantaged) |
| 2022-23 | B | B- |
| 2023-24 | B | B- |
