Pupil Premium

What is it?

The Pupil Premium Grant is funding allocated to children from low-income families who are currently known to be eligible for Free School Meals in both mainstream and non-mainstream settings and children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months. The purpose of the Pupil Premium is to help support those students from low income families to ensure that they make progress at an equal rate to their peers.

Is my child entitled to Free School Meals?

To be eligible you must be receiving one of the following:

• Income support or income-based Job Seekers Allowance;
• Child Tax Credit with an annual taxable income of less than £16,190
• Pension Guarantee Credit
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999

How much money does the school receive?

The school currently receives £935 per eligible child for the academic year 2019/20.

1. Principles

At Paxman Academy, all members of staff and governors accept responsibility for those students recognised as ‘disadvantaged’ and are committed to meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs.

The SIGMA ethos of ‘no child left behind’ is central to our day to day ethos and underpins our Pupil Premium strategy.

Every child who is considered to be ‘disadvantaged’ is valued, respected and entitled to develop to his/her full potential, irrespective of disadvantage.

All staff will do all they can to ensure ‘disadvantaged’ students flourish, and ASPIRE in accordance with the school ethos.

2. Aims

Our school will ensure that the Pupil Premium funding reaches the groups of students for whom it was intended and that it makes a significant impact on their education and lives. No group or individual should be disadvantaged at school in respect of their background.

The Pupil Premium will be used at the school’s discretion to provide additional educational support to improve the progress and raise the achievement for these students.

The funding will be used to narrow and close the differences between the achievement of these ‘disadvantaged’ students and their ‘other’ peers.

The school will use the additional funding to address any underlying inequalities between children eligible for Students Premium and others.

The school will use the funding to remove any potential barriers which may prevent a student reaching their potential.

3. How we will ensure effective use of the Pupil Premium

The Pupil Premium will be clearly identifiable within the budget.

The Executive Headteacher, in consultation with the governors and staff, will decide how the Pupil Premium is spent for the benefit of the entitled students. Funding will be allocated following a needs analysis, which will identify priority groups or individuals. This will be specific to our cohort of students.

The school will have a three-year long term strategic plan and a one-year ongoing plan which will be reviewed at least annually. Copies of both of these documents will be available on the school’s website.

The school will assess what additional provision should be made for the individual students.

The School will be accountable for how it has used the additional funding to support the achievement of those students covered by the Pupil Premium.

The senior member of staff will report to the governing committee and parents on how effective the intervention has been in achieving its aims, including publishing online information about how the Premium has been used and its impact.

We will track the impact of the strategies put into place through the funding to ensure that we can show the value that has been added to the education of the entitled children.

We will monitor evaluate and review the success of the impact of the pupil premium funding and will adjust our plans accordingly.

We will regularly seek to further develop strategies and interventions which can improve the progress and attainment of these students. Examples of the range of provision we may put in place include:

• Providing small group or 1:1 support with members of staff to focus on overcoming barriers to learning.
• Facilitating students access to education and the curriculum through additional or specialist resources.
• Additional teaching and learning opportunities provided through our teaching staff
• Providing support to students to overcome barriers which may prevent them from learning in school

4. Reporting Outcomes and Impact

It will be the responsibility of the senior member of staff to produce a report for the governing committee that will include:

• The implemented strategies and progress made towards closing the gap, by year group, for disadvantaged students.
• An outline of the provision made during the term since the last report.
• An evaluation of the cost effectiveness, in terms of the progress made by the students receiving a particular provision, when compared with other forms of support.

Service Premium

What is the Service Pupil Premium?

The Department for Education introduced the Service Pupil Premium (SPP) in April 2011 in recognition of the specific challenges children from service families face and as part of the commitment to delivering the armed forces covenant.

State schools, academies and free schools in England, which have children of service families in school years Reception to Year 11, can receive the SPP funding. It is designed to assist the school in providing the additional support that these children may need and is currently worth £310 per service child who meets the eligibility criteria.

Eligibility criteria

Students attract the SPP if they meet the following criteria:

• one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces
• they have been registered as a ‘service child’ on the school census
• one of their parents died whilst serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme
• students with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full time reserve service are classed as service children.

The purpose of the Service Pupil Premium

We receive the SPP so that we can offer mainly pastoral support during challenging times and to help mitigate the potential negative impact on service children of family mobility or parental deployment. Should you have any questions regarding this please contact Mr Murray, via the school office.