Pupil Premium
What is Pupil Premium?
Alderman Pounder Infant and Nursery School is committed to equality of opportunity for all pupils, regardless of individual circumstances. We strive to help all pupils reach their full potential and the Pupil Premium funding helps us to do this by awarding the school additional funding which can be used in a variety of ways, as decided upon by the school leadership. Below is an explanation taken from the Department for Education website which gives more detail. The Pupil Premium funding is additional funding given to schools so that they can support their disadvantaged pupils and close the attainment gap between them and their peers.
Purpose
Pupil premium is funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England. Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.
Accountability
Schools must show how they’re using their pupil premium funding:
- by publishing a statement on their website about how they use their funding and the impact it has on the attainment of disadvantaged pupils
- through inspections by Ofsted
- through published performance tables
Funding
School leaders are best placed to assess their pupils’ needs and use the funding to improve attainment, drawing on evidence of effective practice. Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils and schools are not required to spend all of the allocated grant on eligible pupils.
It is for school leaders to decide how to spend the pupil premium, within the requirements of the conditions of grant.
Evidence suggests that pupil premium spending is most effective when used across 3 areas.
- High-quality teaching, such as staff professional development.
- Targeted academic support, such as tutoring.
- Wider strategies to address non-academic barriers to success in schools, such as attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support.
The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) recommend that schools particularly focus their pupil premium on supporting high-quality teaching.