Pupil Premium

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.

 

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.

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

1. Teaching priorities – £58,453
2. Targeted academic support – £113,539
3. Wider strategies – £82,144

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 (£254,136)

Teaching Priorities – £58,453
Area	Cost
SENDCO Training	£2,575
AHOKS4 Student Intervention	£17,806
AHOKS3 Student Intervention	£18,892
HOY Student Intervention	£14,251
Recruitment and Retention	£4,929

 

Academic Support – £113,539
Area	Cost
R&R for Pupil Premium	£8,957
R&R for KS3 Pupil Premium	£9,437
Local Authority Attendance Support	£8,323
Think for the future mentoring	£5,737
Family support	£19,385
Teaching Assistant Support	£10,093
SEND Teaching Assistant Support	£16,029
HLTA Support	£30,611
Academic Mentor	£4,967

 

Wider Strategies – £82,144
Area	Cost
After School Intervention	£7,538
KS4 ALT Mentoring	£9,683
KS3 ALT Mentoring	£4,530
Attendance Support	£14,727
Hardship Support	£2,500
Prospects	£1,015
Data Action Support	£11,037
Behaviour Support	£26,980
Revision Guides	£2,552
Additional Support	£1,582

 

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.