Pupil Premium

What is it?

The school receives Pupil Premium funding, which is additional to the main school budget.  The Pupil Premium funding (currently £1,320 per eligible child, per year) is allocated to pupils who are either currently eligible for free school meals or who have been eligible in the last 6 years, known as ‘Ever 6’.  Pupil Premium for Children Looked After (CLA) as defined in the Children Act 1989 as one who is in the care of, or provided with accommodation by, an English Local Authority is £1,900 per eligible child, per year.

What is it used for?

Pupil Premium funding is intended to address the historic underachievement of children from poorer backgrounds in this country.  By giving schools additional money when they have families from poorer backgrounds, the Government is seeking to ‘close the gap’ in achievement, meaning that any student from any background should be able to achieve at a high level.  The money is intended to support schools to ensure this happens for students in their care.

At Granard, we have an excellent track record of Pupil Premium children attaining as well as, or better than, ‘other’ children in a number of assessments, including the Year 1 phonics screening, end of Key Stage 1 assessments and end of Key Stage 2 assessments.

Pupil Premium funding at Granard is spent on a range of support and additional intervention which ensures that every child succeeds. You can read in more detail about our spending and the review of our impact for 2019/20 and 2020/21.

As a school we understand that not all socially disadvantaged pupils will be eligible for free school meals, for example those without recourse to public funds, and we reserve the right to allocate Pupil Premium funding to those children we identify as socially disadvantaged.

How is the impact monitored?

Assessment procedures at Granard are robust and we are relentless in monitoring and evaluating the progress of all children.  This is done in our ‘pupil progress’ meetings each term, where we identify any child who is not on track or has not made adequate progress, and then put in place targeted support for them.  Children eligible for Pupil Premium funding are identified through this process and support mapped on to the range of resources the school has to offer.

What are the main barriers to educational achievement faced by eligible pupils of the school?

We always seek to understand every child and their family as individuals and understand that generalisations are not always helpful. However, some common challenges for eligible pupils include:

• Lack of a language rich environment, resulting in lower attainment on entry

• A narrower physical sphere or experience; they may have had less opportunity to travel outside of the immediate area or to access a wide range of opportunities and experiences

• They may have had less access to books, toys and other resources which support early learning and development

• Many of our families experience housing challenges and this can have very significant negative impact on them, including tiredness, personal hygiene, hunger, fear and anxiety

• Some children experience a poor diet

• Some children experience the effects of substance misuse or domestic violence

• Some children have parents in prison

   

These challenges mean that we support the pupils in 4 areas:

• Focus on academic support

• Focus on social, emotional and behaviour

• Focus on enrichment and widening opportunity

• Focus on families/community