Pupil Premium - Statement of Intent

Pupil Premium – This statement needs to be considered alongside our Pupil Premium Policy which provides more detail.  

Mundy Church of England Junior School recognise that the money we receive known as a pupil premium has a significant part to play in supporting the whole child’s well-being, personal development and ability to be successful in their school life. It is our fundamental belief that by ensuring that our children’s emotional and physical needs are catered for enables us to promote our children’s happiness, leading to the creation of more resilient and engaged learners. It is Mundy Junior School’s intention to ensure that ALL pupils have equal opportunity to a broad, balanced, and engaging education that enables them to thrive and succeed into adulthood.

The challenge for any school following on from Covid outbreaks and lockdowns is to recognise that our children’s needs both emotionally and educationally are unlikely to be the same as pre Covid. Our School Strategic Plan for 2021/2022 recognised the need to reconsider what we do and how we do it when we recognise that the children’s experience of education will have been different since March 2020. It points out that some children will have received positive home tuition whilst others very little. Some children will have been regular attenders at school as their parents were key workers but again this didn’t apply to everyone.

As a result of the pandemic SATs did not take place in 2020 or 2021, so we lack a nationally standardised statistical analysis of where the children are academically. One of our main objections in the past academic year (2021/22) has been to establish an accurate baseline of attainment for our children, which we believe we have achieved. Our assessments this year have shown clearly that there are gaps in learning, and we have had to acknowledge that attainment is below 2019 levels as indicated by SATs outcomes. We have proven successful at promoting accelerated progress for our children designated as ‘disadvantaged’. In some respects, it could be argued that all of our children have been ‘disadvantaged’ by the pandemic, but our more vulnerable children have been impacted negatively to a greater degree.

Our approach to ensuring that our ‘vulnerable/disadvantaged’ children receive the support they need and achieve the best outcomes, as described above, could be best described as global. We do not believe that one element of support is the best and only approach. For instance, we have recently been able to re-open our Breakfast Club which is free to all of our children. Our view is that we would rather have some families access it that could afford to pay than have only children from Pupil Premium households attending. Currently of our children in receipt of Pupil Premium attend. This figure was 10% before the pandemic. Our Breakfast Club began because we recognised that a number of our children came to school hungry. Given the current cost of living crisis and the nationwide need for foodbanks, the Breakfast Club fulfils an even more vital role. It ensures that our families, even those whose children don’t quite fall within the Pupil Premium parameters, still have access to food and a well organised/structured start to the school day. We also run after school clubs which are free for our children in receipt of Pupil Premium with a minimal charge for others. The clubs are aimed at providing a quality of care and additional opportunities which add further layers to our curriculum.  

Within the school day we also run nurture groups for children who have emotional needs that need positive and direct support. Our TA’s run these sessions.

It was noted by Ofsted that Catch Up/Recovery programmes had, in a lot of schools, resulted in some negative outcomes for pupils as an unforeseen consequence was that those children missed out on other elements of their learning. Our approach has been to increase classroom support in the form of Teaching Assistants supporting individual and groups. Mundy Junior School has a long established and externally recognised approach to our use of T.A.s. Ofsted commented ‘The Teaching Assistants are very well directed, and they support learning exceptionally well, especially for pupils who are at risk of falling behind’. A significant amount of our Pupil Premium Money and Catch Up/Recovery funding has been used to ensure that our TAs are an important element of our teaching team. The Education Endowment Foundation research used to show that TA’s had an impact on pupil progress of minus one month. It now states that their impact is plus four months.

Other interventions to support our vulnerable families over the past academic year have been to supply:

• Free uniform to all children during the phased return after lockdown, and to provide those on FSM with free uniform as required.
• Food hampers, at the end of every half term and grab bags and hampers during Lockdown
• Holiday camps for vulnerable children both paid for and with the provision of staff to enable those with high needs to access holiday facilities, ensuring parental respite and quality of support for children.
• Providing stationery and pencil cases to all children.
• Providing free pe kits and equipment to those as applicable.
• Lifts to children to sporting events who could otherwise be unable to attend.
• Transport for vulnerable pupils to ensure attendance at school.
• Learning Support within the classroom setting – used both individually and small group work as well as enabling teachers to undertake high quality small group work.
• 1:1 emotional and wellbeing support post-pandemic.

Measuring the impact

SLT, Teaching Staff and Teaching Assistants.

Staff use a system of overview analysis using the data from our tracking system and ongoing assessment data (undertaken half-termly). TAs have a specific child who they monitor progress through their intervention groups who are PPG in order to quantify effectiveness of intervention and desired outcomes, results are fed back to teaching staff and SLT for review.

The Senior Leadership Team are responsible for implementing this policy. They will ensure that all staff are aware of their responsibilities in narrowing the gaps of our pupils. They will also ensure that staff are given appropriate support and relevant professional development opportunities to accelerate pupil’s progress and attainment. Narrowing the gaps in attainment is a priority area of focus for the school.

It will be the responsibility of the Head to ensure that the following information is provided for governors via the teaching and learning committee:

• the progress made towards narrowing the gap, by year group, for disadvantaged pupils
• an outline of the provision and any changes that have been made since the last report
• an evaluation of the cost effectiveness, in terms of the progress made by the pupils receiving a particular provision, when compared with other forms of support the headteacher has day to day responsibility for coordinating the implementation of this policy and monitoring outcomes. The Headteacher has expert and informed knowledge of evidence based research of ‘what works’ and ‘how’ this works in narrowing the gaps. He knows how to customise this research to fit the needs of our pupils and school context.
• The School Business Manager will monitor the use of the Pupil Premium on a termly basis to track the allocation and use of Pupil Premium funding. She will also check to see that it is providing value for money.

Governors

Our governing body has an important role in ensuring our school complies with legislation and that this policy, along with its specific stated actions for narrowing the gaps is implemented.

The Chair governor with Pupil Premium responsibility is responsible for ensuring the implementation of this policy.

Our governing body will at least termly, keep our work in narrowing the gaps under review so that they can monitor the use of the Pupil Premium. In monitoring and evaluating the work of the school in relation to the Pupil Premium, the governing body will take into account a range of information, including quantitative (data on progress and attainment) and qualitative (case studies, views, surveys etc.) data as evidence of impact.

At the end of the academic year, our Governors will ensure that there is an annual statement to parents on how the Pupil Premium funding has been used to address the issue of narrowing the gaps in our school and the impact this has had.