Pupil Premium – Tudor Grange Academy Redditch

Introduction

The pupil premium is designed to tackle the achievement gap between students from low-income families and their peers. After prior attainment, poverty is the single most important factor in predicting a child’s future life chances. The chances of a student eligible for free school meals (FSM) achieving five or more GCSEs at A*-C including English and Mathematics are less than one-third those of a non-FSM student.

The pupil premium is additional to main school funding and is meant to address the current underlying attainment inequalities between children eligible for free school meals and those from wealthier backgrounds.

The Government allocates money to schools based on the number of pupils receiving free school meals. This money is not ring fenced but should be used to improve outcomes for those children. There are also allocations for Looked After Children and Service Personnel Children.

All schools are free to spend the pupil premium grant as they see fit, but will be held accountable for how they have used the additional funding by measures in the performance tables. We will publish information about how we have used the grant on our website.

The decisions we make on how to use the funding to improve the progress and attainment of the eligible students will be based on guidance provided by educational research as well as our analysis of the specific needs of our school and wider community.

Evidence shows that the most effective schools narrow the achievement gap through a combination of high quality teaching, strong leadership, a relevant and coherent curriculum, a culture of high expectations and targeted catch-up and enrichment activities. We intend to use the pupil premium grant to develop these practices at TGA Redditch and increase student achievement.

Overall Objectives

The college staff will uphold the key principle of: know them well; be ambitious
We will ensure that the pupil premium grant reaches the groups of students for whom it was intended and that it makes a significant impact on their education and lives.
The pupil premium grant will be used to provide additional educational support to improve the progress and raise the achievement for these students of all abilities
The grant will be used to narrow the gap between the achievement of these students and their peers.
We will use the additional funding to address any underlying inequalities between students eligible for pupil premium and their peers.

How will we ensure effective use of the Pupil Premium?

The pupil premium grant will be clearly identifiable within the budget.
The governors in consultation with the Head Teacher and staff, will decide how the pupil premium grant is spent for the benefit of the entitled students. Funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority groups or individuals. The impact on student attainment will be regularly monitored and evaluated.
In making provision for socially disadvantaged students, we recognise that not all students who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged or underachieving. We also recognise that not all students who are socially disadvantaged are registered for free school meals. We therefore reserve the right to allocate the pupil premium grant to support any groups of students the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.
The school, through the Head Teacher, 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 by maintaining comprehensive evidence.
The Head Teacher will report to the governing body and parents/carers on how effective the intervention has been in achieving its aims, including publishing online information about how the grant has been used.
The intervention focus group will have scheduled meetings and its primary focus is improving the progress of PP students.
The tracking progress of the students will be a priority item in all curriculum and pastoral meetings
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 students.
We will monitor evaluate and review the success of the impact of the pupil premium grant.
We will adapt Inset session in order to meet any identified needs for aiding PP attainment.
The utilisation of effective seating plans and questioning will be prioritised for all PP students.
We will have clear guidelines regarding increased engagement of PP parents.

Provision

We will regularly seek to further develop strategies and interventions, which can improve the progress and attainment of these students:

We will utilise the College system and ensure learning mentors are targeting PP student with a range of interventions

Reporting Outcomes

It will be the responsibility of the Head Teacher to produce a report for the governing body that will include:

Every PP student will be mentored;
Every PP student will have a voice through regular surveys, which will result in SMART TARGETS
Every PP student will have high quality careers guidance
The progress made through 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;

The governors of the school will ensure that there is an annual statement to parents/carers on how the pupil premium grant has been used to address the issue of ‘narrowing the gap’ for socially disadvantaged students. This task will be carried out mindful of any requirements published by the Department for Education.