Pupil Premium

Students supported by pupil-premium funding achieve better than is typically found nationally  –  OFSTED 2014

The aim of Pupil Premium funding is to reduce the gap between students eligible for Pupil Premium and those who are not.

At Beaumont School, our principles and strategy for using Pupil Premium Funding are as follows:

1. The school ensures that a designated senior leader, an Assistant Headteacher, plus the Headteacher and Senior Leadership team have a clear overview of how the funding is being allocated and the difference it is making to the outcomes for pupils.
2. The school reports to the governing body on a termly basis regarding the progress, behaviour and attendance of the pupils.
3. The school also ensures that class and subject teachers know which pupils are eligible for pupil premium so that they can take responsibility for accelerating their progress.
4. The interventions we have set up are to tackle a range of issues, e.g. attendance, behaviour, factors outside school.  Therefore, the school focuses on INSET on supporting pupils, effective teaching and learning, strong careers information, advice and guidance, literacy and numeracy support, targeted subject support, post-mock exam booster classes, good facilities for supported self-study, mentoring, counselling and further enrichment.
5. Sutton Trust Research shows that one of the most effective interventions is related to meta-cognition and self-regulation.  At Beaumont School we are proud of our ‘Skills for Success’ (S4S) programme which supports students to develop the skills they need to learn and for later life.  These ‘Skills for Success’ are taught through a varied tutor time programme, which is regularly reviewed, and through the whole curriculum.  In addition, Curriculum Enrichment Days throughout the school year are themed around a different aspect of the ‘S4S’ programme.  These skills are often those that may have been missing from home lives, when disadvantage occurs, so it is important that they are taught in school.
6.  Feedback has also been shown to have one of the most positive impacts on student progress.  At Beaumont we have an effective and differentiated feedback system that allows all learners to make good progress and learn how to improve their work.
7. We allocate our best teachers to teach our KS4 Maths and English booster sessions.
8. The school thoroughly analyses the performance and progress of students in all subjects, with a particular focus on English, Maths and Science.  Regular monitoring takes place at both department and pastoral level, with senior leaders monitoring that suitable interventions are in place.
9. The school never confuses eligibility for Pupil Premium with low ability and supports students to achieve the highest levels possible.
10. The school draws on the latest research and works with relevant bodies outside the school to ensure that we are drawing on advice and best practice in supporting those pupils eligible for Pupil Premium.

Government expectations

In April 2010, the Government introduced the Pupil Premium.   This additional funding was allocated to children from low-income families who were known to be eligible for Free School Meals in both mainstream and non-mainstream settings and children who had been in Local Authority Care continuously for more than six months.  The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for Free School Meals and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

Pupil Premium Funding

It is intended that the reporting of Pupil Premium spending will demonstrate the extent to which it has had a positive impact on the learning, engagement or well-being of its recipients, while ensuring that no individual pupil or group of pupils is identifiable.  It should also be noted that many benefits of funded activities are not easily quantifiable and that it is rarely possible to identify a comparative outcome resulting from a lack of spending against which to measure the impact of the provision of additional resources.

A copy of the latest Student Premium Strategy, which details the spending and impact of Pupil Premium funding can be downloaded here.

Assessment of Impact

This is broadly divided into two areas:

• Case Studies are used to document the impact of single or multiple interventions upon the engagement, learning and well-being of individual pupils.  These are not published as they would make the recipients of Pupil Premium funding identifiable.  Anonymised case studies are part of the reporting to governors.  Indicators of positive impact include: improved academic performance resulting from inclusion in a study trip; improved attendance as a result of intervention from the Attendance Improvement Officer or counsellor; improved behaviour, engagement or reported well-being as a result of support from the school counsellor, mentoring or outreach workers; improved participation in school events and extra-curricular activities.
• Academic indicators, such as progress towards an aspirational upper quartile target or an improvement in performance across termly assessments, will be calculated for groups of pupils at the end of the academic year.  This will measure the impact of interventions such as 1:1 tuition, Learning Support withdrawal groups and other mechanisms of targeted support in Literacy and Maths.

An annual report of how the previous year’s Pupil Premium funding has been spent, along with the rationale behind the allocation of resources and the impact they have had on pupils’ learning, engagement and well-being will be made to the Community, Teaching & Learning Committee of the Governing Body and published on the school website during the Autumn Term.