Pupil Premium
Pupil premium is a national funding stream which the government introduced in an attempt to address some of the inequalities suffered by disadvantaged children.
It is based on the number of pupils:
registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years
- registered as a child of a parent serving in the UK’s Armed Forces in the past 5 years
- in local authority care for 1 day or more
- has left local authority care because of one of the following: adoption, a special guardianship order, a child arrangements order.
In June 2018 the Local Authority undertook an Independent Pupil Premium Audit of Fairlight Primary and Nursery School.
This audit was undertaken by two Headteachers who are National Leaders of Education (NLE’s). It outlined areas that the school were successful in their work related to Pupil Premium as well as giving the school clear areas for further exploration and development. These have been incorporated into the schools Pupil Premium Strategy.
The leaders of the school are determined to raise standards and move practice forward. The clear school vision permeates everything they do and enables the holistic approach to disadvantage pupils and school improvement. We can clearly see the use of evidence-based research to improve outcomes for children. PUPIL PREMIUM AUDIT June 2018
The audit also showed the school has continued to work on areas related to Pupil Premium attainment and achievement since our OFSTED Inspection in December 2014.
The school uses the extra funding it receives for disadvantaged pupils well. This ensures that these pupils make good progress from their starting points compared with other pupils in this and in other schools. OFSTED December 2014
The performance of disadvantaged pupils in reading, writing and mathematics in the 2014 national tests indicated that they were less than half a term behind other pupils in the school. The results also showed that disadvantaged pupils were just under two terms behind other pupils nationally. However, the equivalent group’s attainment in 2012 had been almost a year behind that of other pupils in the school, and just over two terms behind that of other pupils nationally. This shows the school’s success in narrowing significantly the gaps between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and that of other pupils. OFSTED December 2014
The 2018 Pupil Premium Strategy focuses on improvements for the attainment and achievement of Pupil Premium children whilst also ensuring the school continues to focus on its vision of EVERY INDIVIDUAL CHILD ACHIEVES.
Please click here for our 2022-2023 Pupil Premium strategy
HOW WE SPEND ADDITIONAL MONEY
As a school we get additional money for a number of groups of children from Pupil Premium, to Free School Meals, to children who used to be looked after- these are children who are subject to an SGO.
We use this money to support a number of valuable interventions. These include a Nurture Class, Speech and Language Teacher, Play Therapy, Yoga and Reading Support Teachers and programmes.
The money we get does not cover the full costs of these interventions but goes a part way to fund this support.
We have chosen to use the money on these as they are based on clear research and data and also they link to our school vision of EVERY INDIVDUAL CHILD ACHIEVES. We are also keen to ensure that we cover a wide range of support options and therefore they are not all focussed on learning areas but also well-being.
By using the money this way we feel that we get the best value and that children benefit more greatly than allocating each child their individual money and then checking how this is spent. This is not a cost effective way of spending the money and often leads to children getting limited access to support. Or paying costly rates for a short activity or support.