Pupil Premium Funding Strategy
The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers.
Free School Meals – Ever 6
In the 2017 to 2018 financial year, schools receive the following funding for each student registered as eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last 6 years:
- £1,320 for pupils in reception to year 6
- £935 for pupils in year 7 to year 11
Ever in Care
For the pupils who attract the £2,300 rate, the virtual school head of the local authority that looks after the pupil will manage the majority of this funding. This includes students:
- identified in the school census or the alternative provision census as having left local-authority care as a result of one of the following:
- adoption
- a special guardianship order
- a child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order)
- who has been in local-authority care for 1 day or more
- recorded as both eligible for FSM in the last 6 years and as being looked after (or as having left local-authority care)
Service Pupil Premium Child - Ever 6
In addition, schools receive £310 for each student registered as a forces child at any point in the last 6 years. This is a contribution to schools to ensure that they can put intervention in place to address any gaps in students’ knowledge, skills and understanding caused by high levels of mobility.
Support Structures
At St George’s Academy, we ensure that this funding is used strategically to support students in a variety of ways. Having carefully analysed the barriers that our eligible students face in making expected progress, we have been able to allocate funding with precision to ensure that support is in place where needed.
As a result, we fund the following support structures for our eligible students:
- Family Support workers on both campuses.
- This team works closely and extensively with our LAC students and their carers to ensure that we meet the students’ needs in terms of learning and pastoral care. In addition, the team work closely with families of other eligible students where there are specific needs that require closer collaboration with home, and a more cohesive approach to ensure that barriers to learning are minimised.
- Leicester Street provision.
- This is a base that we provide for students who require emotional support for a variety of reasons, including family deployment for Service Children. This also hosts a variety of counselling services that we fund where we feel this support is needed for students, so that they have an improved focus on learning.
- Learning Mentors – KS3 and KS4.
- We have two Learning Mentors based on each campus, who support eligible students to improve progress. Each term, the KS3 and KS4 Learning Mentors identify priority students, drawing on a wide range of information available to them, including effort grades / codes, progress data, and Bromcom behaviour monitoring. They work closely with students in and out of lessons to help them to overcome barriers to learning and improve progress.
- Higher Level Teaching Assistants (HLTA) – Mathematics, English, Science, Humanities.
- We have a team of additional HLTAs who are focused on a key subject area, across both campuses. The subject HLTAs work closely with their Subject Leads to analyse progress data and ensure that underperforming eligible students are provided with support (including intervention) in order to address their needs. These gaps in knowledge may have arisen from a variety of factors, for example, early development issues, high mobility through deployment for services children, or a range of other reasons.
- Breakfast Club.
- This is a provision for eligible students that is run by our KS3/4 Learning Mentors on each campus. This provides an opportunity for us to ensure that students have had a sufficient breakfast to see them through their morning, but also enables Learning Mentors to check that homework has been completed and that the students are fully ready for their day. This has also been useful for service children where one (or both) parents are deployed and childcare is challenging at the start of the day.
- Homework Club.
- This is a provision that runs at lunchtime and afterschool, and is led by KS3/ 4 Learning Mentors. This is designed to support students to keep on top of their homework, and make best use of their time at lunch and after school to achieve this. Food is provided for the students so that they don’t have to queue for food first, hence reducing the time available for learning. This also helps students to have access to all of the resources that they may need, including computer access.
- Assistant Student Progress Managers (Sleaford) / Assistant Key Stage Managers (Ruskington).
- On each campus, our Student Progress Managers for each year group / Key Stage have an assistant (ASPM / ASKM) who oversee any pastoral needs for our eligible students in the first instance. They monitor these using termly tracking sheets from tutors, and then address any needs through discussions with the Learning Mentors for KS3 / 4, and access to funding if needed.
- Careers Support.
- Each academic year, we ensure that our eligible students have access to an external careers guidance professional through Years 7 to 13, to talk through their aspirations and ensure that they have all of the information and support they need to achieve these. In total, 40 days of independent careers guidance is purchased by the Academy each year and approximately 20 days of this are allocated specifically for eligible students across the Academy. This is in addition to the two excellent Careers Advisors already employed at the Academy.
- Alternative Provision.
- When we have exhausted all support mechanisms within school, and we feel that the barriers to learning are too significant for us to overcome without negatively impacting on a significant number of other students, we put alternative provision in place for our students, to avoid permanent exclusion. Where this is the case for eligible students, we fund transport to ensure attendance at the alternative provision. This is to ensure that the students continue to access education, gaining the qualifications that will provide them with a greater level of choice for their future.
Additional Support
In addition to the support structures in place for all of our eligible students based on the overall barriers to learning that we have seen over time, we also offer additional support and funding for students who are currently eligible for free school meals. This is to ensure that children from families with low income currently are not disadvantaged as a part of their everyday life at the Academy.
Additional funding support for students who are currently eligible for FSM, includes:
- Uniform
- Shoes
- Sports kit
- Stationary / other equipment
- Curriculum Visits
- Revision guides / workbooks
- Transport for after-school and revision sessions
- Music lessons where studied at KS4 as an examination subject
- Financial support for Y11 Prom
- Post-16 transport pass
- Post-16 bursary to support dress code and study resources
Our Pupil Premium Funding Strategy is reviewed annually, and will next be reviewed in July 2023.
EEF Guide to Supporting School Planning 2021-22 - Click Here
PP Strategy Planning Document 2022-2023 - Click Here
For more information about Additional Funding at St George's Academy - Click here
To see the Funding Impact 2020-21 - Click here
To see the Evaluation of Impact 2021-2022- Click here
To see the Action Plan 2020-2021 - Click here
