The Pupil Premium Grant, which is additional to main school funding, is allocated to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.
The Pupil Premium is allocated to children from low-income families who are currently known to be eligible for FSM in both mainstream and non-mainstream settings and children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months.
Research into how to effectively spend this money has been completed by many respected bodies like the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) and The Sutton Trust. Research supports the leaders of a school to find ways to utilise this funding by highlighting strategies which will have the greatest benefit to learning.
The school can support families in a range of different ways. Visit the page below for more information.
At Chambersbury Primary School, we use our pupil premium funding in a range of ways taking into account our school Mission statement. In order to encourage children to be ‘change makers’ it is important that we focus on the development of the ‘whole child’. We aim to do this in a variety of ways such as funding Teaching Assistants (TAs) for additional hours to support children in personalised and small group interventions throughout the school day. This includes support for social and emotional needs as well as academic learning.
Although we use our money in a variety of ways (depending on the needs of the child), we also aim to promote positive partnerships with parents and provide enhancing opportunities and enrichment.
Promote positive partnerships with parents by creating an inclusive and welcoming culture. Chambersbury School invests significantly in Family Workers and school staff to engage and support parents. Family Workers provide ties that bind the school to families that have had mixed experiences of education themselves, or may be facing chronic or acute family difficulties. They are valued by both school leaders and families in equal measure. They support with many aspects of family life, but with a clear expectation that their role improves attendance, punctuality, access to resources and enable children to take part in all elements of school life, including trips and outings. They also support families during parent consultations and transition and encourage eligible families to register for free school meals.
Provide enhancing opportunities and enrichment to help to compensate for social and financial disadvantage. All children have had opportunities to experience a wide range of life experiences through trips and visits. Using the Pupil Premium for enrichment activity is effective in closing the social and cultural gap between Pupil Premium pupils and their peers, by offering new experiences that may otherwise not be available. The Pupil Premium Grant will be used to fund or subsidise other interventions to create cultural capital, raise aspirations and extend pupils’ experiences by providing opportunities to learn outside the classroom: through subsidies for trips and visits and inviting visitors into school (writers, artists, sports coaches).