Pupil Premium

The Government believes that the Pupil Premium Grant, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

The Pupil Premium Grant of was introduced in April 2011 and is allocated to schools to work with pupils who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’). Schools also receive funding for children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months, and children of service personnel. In 2021-22 schools also receive an additional Recovery Premium allocation.

Statement of Intent

Inspiring everyone to shine is our aim for all pupils at Shoscombe School. We recognise that some children require additional support from us in order to shine.

Our intention is that all pupils, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, make good progress and achieve high attainment across all subject areas. The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve that goal, including progress for those who are already high attainers.

We will consider the challenges faced by vulnerable pupils, such as those who have a social worker, are young carers or receive support from our Parent Support Advisor. The activity we have outlined in this statement is also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.

High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach, with a focus on areas in which disadvantaged pupils require the most support. This is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.

Our strategy is also integral to wider school plans for education recovery, notably in its targeted support through School-led Tutoring for pupils whose education has been worst affected, including non-disadvantaged pupils.

Our approach will be responsive to common challenges and individual needs, rooted in robust diagnostic assessment, not assumptions about the impact of disadvantage. The approaches we have adopted complement each other to help pupils excel. To ensure they are effective we will:

ensure disadvantaged pupils are challenged in the work that they’re set
act early to intervene at the point need is identified
ensure all additional support is regularly reviewed for impact
adopt a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve

Challenges faced by our Disadvantaged Pupils

Assessments, observations, and discussions with pupils indicate underdeveloped oral language skills and vocabulary gaps among many disadvantaged pupils. These are evident from Reception through to KS2 and in general, are more prevalent among our disadvantaged pupils than their peers.
Assessments, observations, and discussions with pupils suggest disadvantaged pupils generally have greater difficulties with phonics than their peers. This negatively impacts their development as readers from Reception through to Year 6.
Internal assessments indicate that writing attainment among disadvantaged pupils is significantly below that of non-disadvantaged pupils and that these pupils are making slower progress then their peers.
Internal assessments indicate that maths attainment among disadvantaged pupils is significantly below that of non-disadvantaged pupils, although they are making good progress which is often better than their peers.
Our assessments and observations indicate that the education and wellbeing of many of our disadvantaged pupils have been impacted by partial school closures to a greater extent than for other pupils. These findings are supported by national studies. This has resulted in significant knowledge gaps leading to pupils falling further behind age-related expectations in all subjects.
Our observations and discussions with pupils and families have identified social and emotional issues for many pupils, notably due to complex family circumstances and school closure. These challenges particularly affect disadvantaged pupils, including their attainment. Teacher referrals for support have markedly increased during the pandemic. 28 pupils (11 of whom are disadvantaged) currently require additional support with social and emotional needs and are receiving small group or 1:1 interventions.

How we will support children to overcome these challenges

We will use a combination of approaches that range from whole class strategies to bespoke 1:1 interventions. The Strategy Statement below details these approaches and the budgeted cost along with our intended outcomes.

Pupil Premium Strategy Statement Shoscombe 2023-24

Pupil Premium Strategy Statement Shoscombe 2022-23