Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium 2020-21

What is ‘Pupil Premium’?

Pupil Premium was introduced in April 2011 and is paid by means of a specific grant for any pupils who have been registered as eligible for Free School Meals within the last six years or those who are looked after by the Local Authority. A premium has also been introduced for children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces. The Pupil Premium will be used by this school to address any underlying inequalities between children eligible by ensuring that funding reaches the pupils who need it most. This group of students is currently referred to as “disadvantaged students (DS)”.

Why do we need Pupil Premium?

Statistics for many years show that there is a gap between the attainment of those students who are considered disadvantaged and those which are not, even if they come to school with the same abilities. This is because of the opportunities that some children can be offered. The Pupil Premium is designed to help close this gap and allow all students to achieve their potential.

How many children at Grace Academy Coventry are eligible for Pupil Premium?

There are 298 students eligible for the Pupil Premium funding at Grace Academy Coventry in 2020 – 2021 academic year.  This equates to 44% of the school cohort.

Grace Academy Coventry – Pupil Premium Strategy

Context:

The current percentage of students’ part of the pupil premium is 44% across Years 7-11. In Years 7 and 8, the percentage of students eligible for the pupil premium is 53% and 46% respectively. Our current Year 7 is our biggest year group and as of November 2020 there were 89 out of 167 who qualified the school to receive additional funding.

In the 2016/2017 academic year, Grace Academy Coventry’s Progress 8 score was -0.57. As part of this the Progress 8 score for our disadvantaged students was -0.87. Both Progress 8 scores improved in the 2017/2018 academic year with overall moving to -0.5 and our disadvantaged score improving to -0.64. Our Progress 8 score for disadvantaged students within the English element massively improved from -1.07 in 2016/2017 to -0.39 in 2017/2018. In the 2018/2019 academic year our journey of progress saw our Progress 8 score move to 0.12 as a school, with our Progress 8 for disadvantaged moving to 0. Based on our tracking of centre assessed grades, as of June 2020 our progress 8 stands at 0.05 however, our disadvantaged progress 8 lies at -0.6. Whilst we have now produced two years of positive progress for our students and have shifted it successfully from -0.52 and lower in previous years, there is still inconsistency in our disadvantaged performance. This prompted a research project conducted in June 2020 alongside the review of our strategy from 2019/2020.

In our 2019/2020 strategy we placed ‘Teaching’ at the heart of our Pupil Premium strategy using the suggested tiered approach outlined by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). A view highlighted in the 2011 Sutton Trust report and put into practice effectively by Springfield Junior School – a school recognised for their exceptional outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. In our 2020/2021 we continue to place this as our focus but using this in unison with the four key areas our research piece highlighted which directly affect the progress of our disadvantaged students.

Another strategy outlined by the EEF is using evidence by making use of other schools and their successes with similar challenges. Using this strategy, since becoming part of the Tove Learning Trust (TLT), Grace Academy Coventry has made links with Rushden Academy who moved their Progress 8 score from -0.77 in 2016/2017 to -0.24 in 2017/2018 (formally Rushden College). In addition to this, Grace Academy now regularly attends network meetings within the Tove Trust.

In the previous strategy, research was at the heart of informing our policy, we continue to do this as 46% secondary school teachers found their school’s Pupil Premium work was having impact (Sutton Trust 2019). The initial research conducted in producing the 2019/2020 strategy was used to build a model for pupil premium spending that meant tracking and evaluation of funding occurred. Our latest piece of research was conducted in house during June 2020 and was focussed on producing a methodical, systemic approach to implementing this ‘teach first’ strategy. The review outlined four key areas which should allow us to detect barriers much earlier and therefore influence outcomes. As a result, the two foci for this strategy born out of the research project are ‘detect’ and ‘intervene’.

Our research project in June 2020 was conducted to identify trends and patterns and ascertain why some of our resources had not had the desired impact. It was also designed to produce a blue print to allow us to identify disadvantaged students falling behind in light of the coronavirus outbreak and subsequent school closure. Becky Francis, EEF chief executive estimated a complete reversal in ten years’ worth of work closing the disadvantaged gap. As a result, this strategy looks to utilize the work of our research project in ‘detect’ and ‘intervene’ to close that gap further.

Priorities for the year are:

Internal:

• To raise levels of literacy and numeracy due to lower levels of Literacy and/or Numeracy skills for some disadvantaged students, which is resulting in lower progress and attainment levels in KS3 and KS4.
• To ensure that disadvantaged students make the highest levels of progress at KS3 and KS4. Pupils who are eligible for disadvantaged funding do not make the highest rates of progress in comparison to all pupils in school in KS3 and KS4. This can be said for high prior attaining, disadvantaged students.
• To reduce the cases of truancy by all students with focus on disadvantaged students within the school. Truancy of disadvantaged students directly affects their progress. In the research conducted, of the top 10 disadvantaged students’ progress 8 scores, no pupils had truanted any lessons during their final year.

External:

• To ensure attendance of disadvantaged students continues to rise. Lower levels of attendance rates for pupils who are eligible for disadvantaged funding in comparison to the rest of the cohort. In 2018/2019 disadvantaged attendance was in-line with the cohort and progress reflected this.
• To raise aspirations of pupils from disadvantaged families. Low levels of aspiration from some families who have pupils who are eligible for disadvantaged funding which impacts upon pupil’s self-esteem and aspiration. During our research project, HPA disadvantaged performance during the 2019/2020 academic year accounted for 5 of the top 15 worst performing disadvantaged students.
• To engage parents from our community. Generational disengagement of a minority, but a significant proportion of parents, who have not worked in partnership with the Academy in many years and hence parental engagement with them has been an issue for many years 

For 2020-2021, expenditure will be focused on four main areas:

1. Enrichment – £15,382
2. Salary – £67,283
3. Intervention – £97,399
4. Curriculum – £53,841

Strategy for 2020/2021 – Context

For the 2020/2021 academic year, we are striving to build on the significant progress we made during the 2018/2019 academic year and the whole school improvement to disadvantaged and catch-up support in 2019/2020. We have split our funding into four different areas: salary, curriculum, intervention and enrichment. The purpose of this is in-line with our barriers: progress, attendance and aspirations.

Some of the key changes and rationale to our 2020/2021 strategy can be found below:

• Catch-up and pupil premium funding combined to ensure full coverage and use of overlap where necessary (example: accelerated reader had historically been dedicated to catch-up funding – this strategy would be useful for disadvantaged students)
• Catch-up sessions to be split into 10 lessons throughout the week across KS3
• MFL masterclass to be completed by HPA students in 6 lessons across the week in KS3
• Where budgeting for teachers has taken place, we have used the September 2020 pay scale (https://www.nasuwt.org.uk/advice/pay-pensions/pay-scales/england-pay-scales.html) M3 teacher for costing (£29,664)

As of November 2020:

Year Group	7	8	9	10	11	School
Pupil Premium	89	69	61	50	29	298
Total	167	151	164	117	81	680
Percentage	53%	46%	37%	43%	36%	44%

Strategy for 2020/2021 – Overview

Enrichment £15,382
Actions	Cost
Bespoke after school intervention P6 lessons are added to school timetable. English, Maths and Science (as well as MFL – Spanish) given priority initially. Tracking of attendance to ensure disadvantage students attend the session (updated process from 2019/2020)	£4,747 (3 teachers delivering afterschool intervention sessions – £10,668 using our whole school percentage ratio of 44.5%)
Teaching and learning support Staff CPD and training courses PiXL membership Kerboodle Maths license	Staff £6,760 PiXL £3,375 Kerboodle £500

Salary £67,283
Actions	Cost
Extended library hours to support out of hours learning Bespoke year group tracking and monitoring Reward voucher system for high attendance and improvements in attendance Reward lunch voucher for 100% weekly attendance (targeted at pupil premium students) Students struggling to reach school on time due to long distance travel to be supported with travel costs Lead parent information evenings Assemblies to celebrate attendance Extensive social and emotional support strategies in place, including developing close links with mental health support within school and wider agencies	33% of assistant head of key stage salary £16,954
	HOY TLR £19,797
Strategically leading our teaching assistant to support disadvantaged students in lessons and to lead some intervention sessions Target group of disadvantaged students to make good progress from starting point (baseline AP1)	45% of Assistant Principal SENDCO £30,532

Intervention £97,399
Actions	Cost
Catch-up in Years 7 and 8: removal of students from MFL lessons for reading focussed sessions Talking points, DEAR, Debate Club, Tutor Time Intervention, Baseline reading assessments Buddy Reading Scheme	£1,824 Literacy coordinator
Utilise family support worker Attendance Officer and Heads of year to monitor pupils and follow up quickly on absences and to identify patterns.	£14,400 Attendance officer£2500 – hardship support (uniform, equipment, face masks)
Disadvantaged students to be rewarded with breakfast to attend school earlier. Pupils cannot make progress if they do not attend. Rewards systems to support attendance.	£1,500 Planner system £4,500
Educational psychologist	£2,943
Local authority attendance support	£4,000
Family support worker to provide different layers of internal and external support to ensure attendance increases	£25,229
1:1 sessions with high tariff students Group sessions with students Themed sessions around the actions that cause their behaviour	£2,368 Ethos Lead TFTF
SEND review conducted Increase level of SEND support in lessons Increase attendance of SEND students within lessons	£5,000 SEND consultant
	£10,961 SEND Admin
	£9,150 SEND TA
	£15,524 HLTA

Curriculum £53,841
Actions	Cost
Whole school focus point Provide targeted support for careers advice and guidance to pupils who may lack awareness of relevant opportunities and raise aspiration Track and monitor attendance and parents information evenings	Prospects £2,700
Monitoring of pupil attendance at careers opportunities and targeted activities	Free
Regular reward trips to celebrate success which are subsidised for PP students	£1,000
Critical Content booklets for each key stage with knowledge, skills and content for each subject provided to pupils to support home learning	£2,000
Provide resources to disadvantaged students to ensure there is no barrier to their learning	£28,350
Coordinator for Most Able pupils to share data on pupil performances with staff after each assessment point and coordinate interventions across all subjects Provide opportunities which raise aspiration and track these opportunities centrally to ensure no one is left out so that all able disadvantaged students access these opportunities Heads of year to liaise with parents to support pupil progress of high ability pupils in their year group through: telephone calls, regular meetings, inviting parents in, intervention timetables	£2,265
To produce progress summaries after each assessment point with focus on school focus groups	45% of data manager salary in producing reports focussed on disadvantaged and other focus groups £17,526

Not yet spent £22,000
Actions	Cost
LA alternative provisio support Academic Mentor	£12,000 45% £10,000

Strategy for 2020/2021 – Funding: 

Pupil Premium Funding: £251,928

Strategy for 2020/2021 – Expenditure: 

Enrichment – £15,382

Salary – £67,283

Intervention – £97,399

Curriculum – £53,841

Reserved funding – £22,000

• Alternative provision to avoid permanent exclusion (impending): £12,000 initial figure

Total: £255,905

One Page Summary of Evaluation for 20219/2020

Provision	Desired Outcomes	Evaluation 2019/2020
Directed staff time	Improve progress of more able disadvantaged students Non-HPA	Improved compared to 2018/2019 where disadvantaged HPA were one of the biggest negative P8’s
Attendance	Improve attendance for disadvantaged and for persistent absentees	Persistent absentees and disadvantaged attendance remains a focus for 2019/2020
Attendance	Increased attendance at parents evening	First time tracking this data and the attendance increased following the initial  tracking
Curriculum	Improve literacy making using of DEAR, talking points etc.	Continues to be embedded and remains a whole school focus
Enrichment	Improve sixth form applications	Sixth form applications increased for the 2020/2021 academic year
Attendance	Enhanced and wider provision of extra-curricular clubs Attendance not tracked	Wider provision of clubs made available – reduction due to COVID for 2020/2021
Attendance	Pupil attendance at careers days	Attendance tracked and monitored. Students assigned multiple opportunities to attend. All students receiving careers advice in 2019/2020  (with the exception of 2 who received electronic careers advice)
Enrichment	Critical content and resources for all students’ to support revision	All students issued, critical content reviewed for content for 2020/2021 academic year
After school intervention sessions	Attendance of disadvantaged students to be in line with non-disadvantaged	Improvement in attainment could not be attributed to attendance in intervention. Intervention attendance gap was not closed
After school intervention sessions	Improve progress through afterschool intervention attendance	Improvement in attainment could not be attributed to attendance in intervention. Intervention attendance gap was not closed

Evidence of impact:

Due to COVID19 and the cancellation of exams, it was not possible to compare our disadvantaged students’ progress to their peers nationally using the progress 8 measure.

The CAG process ensured that all disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students achieved grades which showed good performance compared to their starting points. We have taken the relevant internal data acquired to support our 2020/2021 cohort, despite their being no national data.

Whilst progress has been made in the Academy to improve the outcomes for disadvantaged students. We will be prioritising the following areas to ensure further progress is made:

1. To raise levels of literacy and numeracy
2. To ensure that disadvantaged students make the highest levels of progress at KS3 and KS4 for progress 8
3. To reduce the cases of truancy by disadvantaged students
4. To reduce attendance gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students
5. To raise aspirations of pupils from disadvantaged families
6. To engage disadvantaged parents from our community
   

Evaluation of Pupil Premium spend for 2019/2020

Pupil Premium Spend September 2019 – July 2020
Total		£	204,531
230/556 PP Children	41%		Amount	Percentage
Dedicated Staff Time		£	95,895	47	%
Enrichment		£	6,000	2	%
Interventions		£	21,421	10	%
Curriculum		£	41,000	20	%
Attendance		£	41,888	20	%
Total		£	206,204

Year Group	7	8	9	10	11	School
Pupil Premium	72	53	32	34	39	230
Total	167	109	83	90	107	556
Percentage	43%	49%	39%	38%	36%	41%