The Pupil Premium is funding allocated to schools for the specific purpose of boosting the attainment of pupils from low-income families.
The premium was introduced in April 2011 with the aim of narrowing the attainment gap between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and those who are not by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. It also includes Looked After Children and Services Children.
Funding is based on: children who have registered for a free school meal at any point in the last 6 years (Ever 6); children that are in care or adopted, or were previously (LAC/PLAC); and children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces (children of service personnel).
To check to see if your child is eligible for Pupil Premium funding (Free School Meals), click on the following link here to apply.
The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between disadvantaged children, and their peers, by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.
Whilst schools are free to spend the Pupil Premium as they see fit, we are required to publish this online along with the impact. Our school's strategy can be found by clicking on the link here or below labelled Pupil Premium Strategy.
The Government believes that Headteachers and school leaders should decide how to use the Pupil Premium funding.
They are held accountable for the decisions they make through:
Further information about how schools are held accountable can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pupil-premium-effective-use-and-accountability
In most cases, the Pupil Premium is paid direct to schools, allocated to them for every pupil who is eligible. Schools decide how to use the funding, as they are best placed to assess what additional provision their pupils need.
For pupils from low-income families in non-mainstream settings, the local authority decides how to allocate the Pupil Premium. The authority must consult non-mainstream settings about how the premium for these pupils should be used.
The government has announced that, for the academic year of 2023-24, the pupil premium and service premium rates will increase in line with inflation. Further information about the Pupil Premium funding, including the allocated amounts for the different types of pupils eligible can be found here.
For the academic year 2024-25, our school will receive £71,399 of Pupil Premium funding. The current percentage of our pupils known to be eligible for the pupil premium funding is 34% as of September 2024 (above the national percentage of 24.6%). Therefore, we have a higher than national number of disadvantaged pupils within school.
Stonelow aims to maximise the impact of pupil premium funding, while ensuring that we adhere to the government guidance. We have a senior leader that takes responsibility for the strategic use of the pupil premium funding, evaluation, and the reporting to accountable bodies.
At Stonelow we:
Publish information in our Strategy Statement on our website, using either the DfE, trust template or an approved alternative.
Most pupils begin their Learning Journey at Stonelow Junior School below the national expectations for Year3 children
Many pupils have social and emotional needs that impact on relationships, learning and progress. They have low self-esteem and lack of confidence
Low levels of resilience, leading to low expectations, poor independence skills and inability to problem solve / connect areas of learning
Some of our disadvantaged pupils have additional needs such as ADHD, dyslexia or mild learning difficulties
Poorer than average attendance [frequent ill health, unauthorised holidays or days out of school]
Widened ‘gap’ due both in academic attainment and mental / emotional wellbeing
More frequent behaviour issues
For some pupils their complex family circumstances can also be considered a barrier. At Stonelow we run a nurture group catering for an array of children who have emotional attachment issues due to complicated blended families and unusual parenting techniques. Children with such background have social and emotional developments to make before they can begin to access the educational and academic requirements that school makes of them.
At Stonelow, along with other strategies, we use a large portion of our pupil premium to fund additional adults to work in school and support children. This support may be through one-to-one, or small group intervention, in reading, writing and maths. We also use it to fund the running and resourcing of our nurture group, as well as funding a mindfulness teacher who visits once a week.
By using pupil premium we are able to ensure that pupils reach their potential and meet their targets. Additionally, we also use some of the funding to develop cultural capital in all our pupils to ensure those who are disadvantaged do not miss out - this is used by funding of trips and residentials or the participation in after school clubs.
The social and emotional needs of our pupils are met by using a proportion of Pupil Premium funding for provision such as Nurture, Art Therapy, Forest Schools and ELSA. The pupil premium also allows us to fund a Family Resource Worker, who provide parents and families with support at home and into school, attendance monitoring and support and Early Help advice and signposting.
CPD for staff and release time for staff to have target setting interviews with the pupils is also part of our spending plan.
Our work in school around the allocation of the Pupil Premium grant follows the following research and government guidance:
When making decisions about how to use pupil premium to improve disadvantaged pupils’ attainment, the needs of all pupils in the school are evaluated. Every decision made has the child at the heart of it.
An analysis of our school context shows that although pupil premium does represent a need to improve attainment of the majority of our disadvantaged pupils, not all disadvantaged pupils are underachieving in attainment. Therefore, our focus is to fulfil the highest aspirations in progress to achieve their full potential both academically and personally. Our focus is in developing the whole child so that they become well rounded individuals, preparing them for the next stage in their education. In line with the DfE guidance, the funding is not only spent on eligible pupils.
Research suggests that some of the most effective spending will be on whole school strategies, including improving the quality of teaching, this has been highlighted by the Sutton Trust, whose report on improving the impact of teachers on pupil achievement in the UK revealed that the effects of high-quality teaching are especially significant for pupils from a disadvantaged background – evidence demonstrated the equivalent of 1.5 years worth of learning. Our pupil premium strategy is rooted in our whole-school ethos. We know that if you provide high-quality teaching that is effective for disadvantaged learners, then you are providing effective teaching for all.
Our Pupil Premium Leader in school is Mrs Catherine Byard (Headteacher). Elizabeth Kent [SENDCO] is our named member of staff for Looked after Children (LAC) and Previously Looked after Children (PLAC).
Mrs Byard can be contacted, via the school office, on 01246 414370 or, alternatively, by email at headteacher@dronfieldstonelow.derbyshire.sch.uk
Our nominated Pupil Premium governor and governor responsible for overseeing the Looked After Children in school is Mrs Vanessa Siddall.
