How to Check Whether you are Eligible or Apply for Pupil Premium Funding

Pupil premium 2020-2021

 

The school receives funding from the Government to support it in trying to meet the needs of all children. This is known as the Pupil Premium. The Pupil Premium is additional funding from the Government, provided to schools for the support of pupils from low income families in a bid to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as all other children. They believe it is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM). Schools are obliged to report annually on how they spend this money and what impact it has on pupil progress.

 

Overview of the school:

 

 

Our vision

At Harefield Primary School, we are committed to providing all of our children with equal opportunities, and strongly believe all have an entitlement to achieve their potential, whatever their circumstances.

We place inclusivity at the heart of all we do. We aim to develop lifelong learners by removing barriers and increasing resilience and self-esteem.

 

Principles

We are committed to providing quality first teaching to ensure the needs of all pupils are met.

We carefully distribute resources to ensure that all of our vulnerable groups receive appropriate provision.

We reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being in need of intervention and support;

 

Key areas of spending in 2019-2020

Full details of the spend can be found in the Impact Evaluation pdf attached below.

 

Attendance rates for children eligible for pupil premium are lower than the target rate and lower than that of non-PP peers. This reduces school hours and has an impact on learning.

• Family Support Worker employed 1 day a week to support children and families whose attendance is at 90% or below.
• Welfare and Community Liaison Officer employed 5 days a week 72% of this role is to support children and families whose attendance is in the 90%-98% bracket.
• Attendance incentive schemes to motivate children and parents to attend school. Historically free breakfast club provision was offered where it had been proven to have impact on attendance (individually assessed based on need).
• ELSA Monday morning club to collect key children who find it difficult to settle back into the routine of school.
• Higher focus to tackle odd days off & lates as this one of the biggest barriers to PP attendance in our cohort
•  

IMPACT: Whole school attendance reached 94.69% in the academic year 2019-2020 up until lockdown on 23^rd March 2020, with Pupil Premium attendance rising to 92.67%. This represents a 0.21%% increase on the preceding year. Efforts will need to continue into the new academic year.

 

Oral language skills are poorer for pupils eligible for PP than other pupils. This impacts on their English skills and affects progress.

• Speech and language therapist one day per fortnight + dedicated S&L TA (19 hours per week)
• Fortnightly access to EP to support with disadvantaged pupils.
• Previous provision of breaktime & lunchtime support to develop social communication.
• Continuation of BLAST 2 intervention and additional time with S&L ta and therapist to cover all children in the Year R cohort and tackle issues early.
• YR staff develop spoken language through adult directed and child-initiated learning opportunities.
• Duty meals provided for staff to build relationships and social skills at lunch.

 

IMPACT: A GLD was not possible for this cohort due to lock down, however, in the Spring data drop, the % of PP pupils achieving 40-60 months in Communication and Language was 67% and end of year predictions for PP were 75% achieving a GLD, including C & L ELG.

Year 2 –

54.5% were achieving ARE in Spring term in Reading with 71% predicted to achieve ARE+ by the end of the academic year.

40% were achieving ARE in Spring term in Writing with 47% predicted to achieve ARE+ by the end of the academic year.

70% were achieving ARE in Spring Term in Maths with 88% predicted to achieve ARE+ by the end of the academic year.

 

Lower rates of progress for Pupil Premium children when compared with all other children.

• Continue to develop a curriculum which is tailored to the needs of our cohort and specifically addresses the needs identified for our disadvantaged children, including Pupil Premium. Ensure a breadth of experience.
• Teaching and Learning Lead out of class 2 days per week to ensure QFT in all classes (children from a disadvantaged background make 40% more progress in a class with an effective teacher). Quality of teaching and learning will be regularly monitored and supported to ensure high quality teaching.
• Non-teaching Inclusion Lead who will support Class Teachers and Teaching assistants with individual needs of children. Will also monitor provisions for all vulnerable groups and analyse tracking to ensure appropriate adjustments and foci are identified for PP children. Regular tracking and pupil progress meetings with PP children at the fore.
• Investment in new baseline assessments and a new foundation subject tracking system to ensure accurate assessment of starting points and gaps, and a point from which to monitor the impact of additional provisions.
• SLT to ensure planning is accurately pitched and opportunities for secure ARE and greater depth are regular and thorough – work scrutiny to take place termly linking with English and Maths leads.
• Focused intensive small group intervention targeting gaps in learning will enable children to feel more confident with the curriculum within the classroom, including continued investment in Doodle Maths.
• Provision mapping to allow SLT and other school leaders to ensure the appropriateness & impact of interventions.

 

IMPACT: All Pupil premium children will make at least the same rate of progress as non-disadvantaged peers, with those with GD targets keeping up progress to ensure GD achieved at the end of the academic year. Due to Covid, we were unable to complete the academic year of 2019 – 20, PP pupils assessed against whole school in Spring term, still needed additional support to make the same rate of progress as their peers.

 

Increase the level of parental engagement with learning and wider school life.

 

• Continued use of the Marvellous Me app across all classes to ensure regular consistent communication. Ensure badges are sent to praise achievements in curriculum area.
• Children with self-esteem concerns highlighted and shared with staff for focus and, where needed, provided with additional support or intervention.
• Specific support offered from Family Support worker and Community and Welfare Liaison Officer regarding housing, finance, attendance and home life support including behaviour.
• EYFS parent workshops and stay and play sessions to focus on key early reading skills and the sharing of home 'wow' moments.
• Continued used of Tapestry to encourage and foster engagement and communication, both between school and parents but also between parents and children.
• Regular rewards for reading at home and bringing in reading diaries.

 

IMPACT: In Yr R, every child had a WOW moment. Teachers made home visits to 87% of families and 13% had appointments in school, totally 100% parent engagement. Attendance at the first curriculum meetings was 75% attendance. Tapestry sign up was 97%.

Marvellous Me had 83% sign up from parents.

 

Home issues of some children with PP eligibility impact on their readiness to learn, behaviour and wellbeing.

• Family Support Worker employed 1 day a week to support children and families with challenging behaviour at home to access appropriate resources. 
• Welfare assistant employed to support children and families with issues with attendance etc.
• Provision of experienced ELSA providing support for approximately 22 hours a week. This may be support for bereavement or other home instability, support for social or listening skills. ELSA supports children who struggle to settle after the weekend by holding a Monday morning settling club during assembly time. Also provision of a break time club to support children who may need to talk or may struggle with social issues.
• Additional staff CPD from the link Educational Psychologist to support understanding of wellbeing and anxiety in adults and children. Follow up training on resilience.
• Nurture base created and associated Nurture Group set up to foster relationships, self-esteem, social skills and aspiration with key children across the school.
• Fortnightly access to EP to support with disadvantaged pupils.
• Provision of key lunchtime provisions to support children with behaviour or social needs and reduce the number of behaviour issues.

 

IMPACT: Although attendance for PP children did not achieve 95%, by the time of lockdown, there was an increase of 0.40% on the previous year and an increase on Spring 2018 attendance of 0.21%. There was a minimum of a 20% reduction in overall exclusions over the academic year.

 

Some low income families find it hard to provide access to uniform and extra enriching activities to further develop and inspire their children.

• Provision of free teacher clubs. Will analyse club registers and invite those who are not attending anywhere there are spaces in clubs.
• Free school uniform for lower income families.
• Funding of compelling learning experiences such as theatre production provided from outside agencies.
• Provision FAIRSHARE for vulnerable, allocation, distribution and delivery.
• Before & after school club provision with free access being offered to PP eligible children when a need arises.
• Provision of Cool Milk for PP children on a daily basis.
• Opportunity to join on at least 4 trips a year which will be subsidised to ensure affordability (50% off for those parents who approach the school). Free places will be allocated on a needs led basis to ensure that all children have equal opportunities.

 

IMPACT: At least 80% of pupil premium children attended at least one club over the year. Not all pupil premium children could attend at least one trip over the year due to lockdown ceasing school trips.

 

Spend projection and key barriers identified for the coming academic year.

Full details of the spend allocation for 2020-2021 can be found in the pdf attached below.

 

Due to this being a 3 year strategy few changes were made to the barriers to learning which were previously identified, in addition to amendments following Covid. Small adjustments have been made to the key items that will support progress towards our targets for this academic year.

 

Attendance rates for children eligible for pupil premium are lower than the target rate and lower than that of non-PP peers. This reduces school hours and has an impact on learning.

 

• Family Support Worker employed 1 day a week to support children and families whose attendance is at 90% or below.
• Welfare and Community Liaison Officer employed 5 days a week 72% of this role is to support children and families whose attendance is in the 90%-98% bracket.
• Attendance incentive schemes to motivate children and parents to attend school. Historically free breakfast club provision was offered where it had been proven to have impact on attendance (individually assessed based on need). Due to Covid 19 and infection control procedures, Breakfast Club spaces are currently limited and no free spaces can be offered. Key worker families have been prioritised. If teachers flag that there are issues with individual children not having breakfast at home, we will provide a breakfast. As soon as restrictions are relaxed, we aim to reinstate the original PP offer but we are unsure as to when this is unlikely to be.
• ELSA Monday morning club to collect key children who find it difficult to settle back into the routine of school. Emergency slots are still available, despite Covid 19, but a specific group is not held so as not to breach Pods.
• Higher focus to tackle odd days off & lates as this one of the biggest barriers to PP attendance in our cohort. Covid 19 has had an impact on this however we are focussing our support on families with suspected symptoms, so that children can return to school swiftly.

 

Oral language skills are poorer for pupils eligible for PP than other pupils. This impacts on their English skills and affects progress.

 

• Speech and language therapist one day per fortnight + dedicated S&L TA (19 hours).
• Fortnightly access to EP to support with disadvantaged pupils.
• Previous provision of breaktime & lunchtime support to develop social communication. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, we have been unable to continue this in the same light, however, teachers are spending playtime with their own pods focussing on supporting social play and friendships. Lunch is also within pods and there is a reduction in unstructured time at lunch, which has also helped.
• Continuation of BLAST 2 intervention and additional time with S&L ta and therapist to cover all children in the Year R cohort and tackle issues early.
• YR staff develop spoken language through adult directed and child-initiated learning opportunities.
• Makaton training has been provided for Headteacher, Head of Music and all Year R based staff to support the understanding of children as they enter school with limited or no spoken language. This was also utilised during whole school assemblies to ensure all could access.
• Duty meals provided for staff to build relationships and social skills at lunch. Due to Covid and the management of free school meals following restrictions, we have had to stop offering duty meals, as soon as this can be, it will be reinstated. 
• NFER assessments in Y1 to 6 in Autumn 1 to assess fall back due to covid and plan to close gaps quickly. Early Reading and phonics interventions from experienced HLTA.
• Specialist second language service paid intervention to support pupils with EAL, specifically in Yr R and then the rest of the school.

 

Lower rates of progress for Pupil Premium children when compared with all other children.

 

• Continue to develop a curriculum which is tailored to the needs of our cohort and specifically addresses the needs identified for our disadvantaged children, including Pupil Premium. Ensure a breadth of experience. In light of Covid 19, we have adjusted our focus for Autumn 1 curriculum to English, Maths, additional PE, PSHE, Art and DT, in order to support pupil’s wellbeing, reintegration and engagement in school.
• Teaching and Learning Lead out of class 2 days per week to ensure QFT in all classes (children from a disadvantaged background make 40% more progress in a class with an effective teacher). Quality of teaching and learning will be regularly monitored and supported to ensure high quality teaching. Temporary secondment and employment of Acting Assistant Headteacher to support with teaching and learning, in addition to Curriculum and Maths.
• Non-teaching Inclusion Lead who will support Class Teachers and Teaching assistants with individual needs of children. Will also monitor provisions for all vulnerable groups and analyse tracking to ensure appropriate adjustments and foci are identified for PP children. Regular tracking and pupil progress meetings with PP children at the fore. Inclusion Lead currently on maternity leave so DHT currently covering temporary SENCO position.
• Investment in new baseline assessments and a new foundation subject tracking system to ensure accurate assessment of starting points and gaps, and a point from which to monitor the impact of additional provisions.
• SLT to ensure planning is accurately pitched and opportunities for secure ARE and greater depth are regular and thorough – work scrutiny to take place termly linking with English and Maths leads.
• Focused intensive small group intervention targeting gaps in learning will enable children to feel more confident with the curriculum within the classroom, including continued investment in Doodle Maths. As a Covid measure, interventions will be run by a highly experienced HLTA in pods, to tackle gaps in learning.
• Provision mapping to allow SLT and other school leaders to ensure the appropriateness & impact of interventions.
• During Covid to support home learning for vulnerable pupils, weekly phonecalls from SLT and signposting on website, in addition to the provision of appropriate equipment and resources so that they could access online learning and well being.
• NFER assessments in Y1 to 6 in Autumn 1 to assess fall back due to covid and plan to close gaps quickly.
• Early Reading and phonics interventions from experienced HLTA.

 

Increase the level of parental engagement with learning and wider school life.

 

• Continued use of the Marvellous Me app across all classes to ensure regular consistent communication. Ensure badges are sent to praise achievements in curriculum area. In addition, we have introduced home learning via Seesaw and teachers have contacted and supported parents to access this, if their pupil has not accessed the home learning, when monitored.
• Children with self-esteem concerns highlighted and shared with staff for focus and, where needed, provided with additional support or intervention.
• Specific support offered from Family Support worker and Community and Welfare Liaison Officer regarding housing, finance, attendance and home life support including behaviour, in addition to support to access MHST and CAMHS, where appropriate.
• Inclusion support TA supporting families with behaviour, school nurse referrals and well-being.
• EYFS parent workshops and stay and play sessions to focus on key early reading skills and the sharing of home 'wow' moments. Due to Covid restrictions, parent workshops are on hold but communication via phone calls, parent mail and Tapestry is still continuing to support early reading skills and “wow” moments.
• Continued used of Tapestry to encourage and foster engagement and communication, both between school and parents but also between parents and children.
• Regular rewards for reading at home and bringing in reading diaries. Due to Covid restrictions, and following recommendations from Hamwic Trust, pupils across the school will be taking 1 book home on a Monday and bring it back on a Friday. This is to support fluency and also reduce the risk of spreading infection as the books will be quarantined for 72 hours, to be used again on a Monday.
• This year we are doing 3 WOW moments every day by year R staff
• Monitor Seesaw uptake

 

Home issues of some children with PP eligibility impact on their readiness to learn, behaviour and wellbeing.

 

• Family Support Worker employed 1 day a week to support children and families with challenging behaviour at home to access appropriate resources. 
• Inclusion support TA working alongside families to signpost and offer guidance.
• Engagement with MHST and CAMHS referral process to support parents to find the right help.
• Welfare assistant employed to support children and families with issues with attendance etc.
• Provision of experienced ELSA providing support for approximately 22 hours a week. This may be support for bereavement or other home instability, support for social or listening skills, support to improve attitude to learning or reintegration following Covid. ELSA supports children who struggle to settle after the weekend by holding a Monday morning settling club during assembly time. Also provision of a break time club to support children who may need to talk or may struggle with social issues.
• Additional staff CPD from the link Educational Psychologist to support understanding of wellbeing and anxiety in adults and children. Follow up training on resilience.
• ACE/ Mindfulness/ attachment/ zones of regulation CPD offered to staff to access.
• Nurture base created and associated Nurture Group set up to foster relationships, self-esteem, social skills and aspiration with key children across the school. Due to Covid restrictions, Nurture is continuing, however, we have had to reduce the sessions to once a week for 2 bubbles of pupils and in class follow up resources.
• Fortnightly access to EP to support with disadvantaged pupils. Although lockdown restrictions have meant less face to face consultations, we have used zoom and training and completed a risk assessment so that the EP can support within school in the coming weeks.
• Provision of key lunchtime provisions to support children with behaviour or social needs and reduce the number of behaviour issues. Due to Covid 19 restrictions, we have been unable to continue this in the same light, however, teachers are spending playtime with their own pods focussing on supporting social play and friendships. Lunch is also within pods and there is a reduction in unstructured time at lunch, which has also helped.
• Reviewing and rewriting Behaviour Policy so that it is more fit for purpose.
• Introduction of Graduated Response to Behaviour in order to further support in class management of behaviour, identifying root causes and supporting pupils and parents with these, in order to reduce exclusions and build self-esteem and attitude to learning.
• ELSA referral process now RAG rated so that the highest need is prioritised and lower level needs to be supported with tailored resources in class. Trend analysis completed by ELSA and shared with whole school team to support planning.
• MHST and CAMHS parent referral support to ensure parents and pupils are accessing the correct support outside for school, for behaviour, well-being, and mental health.

 

Some low income families find it hard to provide access to uniform and extra enriching activities to further develop and inspire their children.

 

• Provision of free teacher clubs. Will analyse club registers and invite those who are not attending anywhere there are spaces in clubs. Due to Covid, Autumn term clubs are not currently available.
• Free school uniform for lower income families.
• Funding of compelling learning experiences such as theatre production provided from outside agencies. Due to Covid, we have had to postpone the theatre productions but these have been booked in for later in the year. We are investigating how we can provide school trips currently.
• Provision FAIRSHARE for vulnerable, allocation, distribution and delivery.

• Before & after school club provision with free access being offered to PP eligible children when a need arises. Due to Covid 19 and infection control procedures, Breakfast Club and After school spaces are currently limited and no free spaces can be offered. Key worker families have been prioritised. If teachers flag that there are issues with individual children not having breakfast at home, we will provide a breakfast. As soon as restrictions are relaxed, we aim to reinstate the original PP offer but we are unsure as to when this is unlikely to be.

• Provision of Cool Milk for PP children on a daily basis.
• Opportunity to join on at least 4 trips a year which will be subsidised to ensure affordability (50% off for those parents who approach the school). Free places will be allocated on a needs led basis to ensure that all children have equal opportunities. Due to Covid, we are investigating how we can provide school trips currently.
• Once clubs are up and running, 60% of the places will be allocated to PP pupils.