Morton Primary School Long-term Pupil Premium Strategy Statement-3-Year Plan

Our 3 year plan is based on the long-term approach to pupil premium planning recommended by the DfE and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF).

Our philosophy

At Morton Primary School we believe in maximising the use of the pupil premium grant (PPG) by utilising a long-term strategy aligned to the School Development Plan. This enables us to implement a blend of short, medium and long-term interventions, and align pupil premium use with wider school improvements and improving readiness to learn.

Overcoming barriers to learning is at the heart of our PPG use. We understand that needs and costs will differ depending on the barriers to learning being addressed. As such, we do not automatically allocate personal budgets per pupil in receipt of the PPG. Instead, we identify the barrier to be addressed and the interventions required, whether in small groups, large groups, the whole school or as individuals, and allocate a budget accordingly.

Our priorities

Setting priorities is key to maximising the use of the PPG. Our priorities are as follows:

Ensuring an ‘outstanding’ teacher is in every class
Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers
Providing targeted academic support for pupils who are not making the expected progress
Addressing non-academic barriers to attainment such as attendance and behaviour
Ensuring that the PPG reaches the pupils who need it mos

Barriers to future attainment

Academic barriers to attainment	Non-academic barriers to attainment
Low levels of reading fluency, stamina and comprehension skills.	Poor/Low attendance for some disadvantaged children.
Poor attitudes to learning due to lack of resilience when faced with challenges.	Poor behaviour for learning.
‘Outstanding’ teaching not present in every classroom.	Arriving at school hungry and not ready to learn.
Low levels of independent learning.	Lack of focus and confidence due to poor mental health and wellbeing.

Our implementation process

We believe in selecting a small number of priorities and giving them the best chance of success. We also believe in evidence-based interventions and learning from our experiences, which is why we utilise annual light-touch reviews to ensure our approach is effective and we can cease or amend interventions that are not having the intended impact.

We will:

Explore

Identify a key priority that we can address
Systematically explore appropriate programmes and practices
Examine the fit and feasibility with the school

Prepare

Develop a clear, logical and well-specified plan
Assess the readiness of the school to deliver the plan
Make practical preparations

Deliver

Support staff and solve any problems using a flexible leadership approach
Reinforce initial training with follow-on support
Drive faithful adoption and intelligent adaption

Sustain

Plan for sustaining and scaling the intervention from the outset
Continually acknowledge, support and reward good implementation practices
Treat scale-up as a new implementation process

Our tiered approach

To prioritise spending, we have adopted a tiered approach to define our priorities and ensure balance. Our tiered approach comprises three categories:

Quality of teaching for all
Targeted academic support
Wider strategies

Within each category, we have chosen interventions seen as a priority. This focussed approach ensures the best chance of success for each intervention.

Quality of teaching

Improve the quality of teaching in all classes by moving all teaching to outstanding.
Develop resilience and independence in all children

Targeted academic support

To improve the social, physical and emotional well-being of pupils.
To improve the standards of achievement and progression in reading
To improve the standards of achievement and progression in mathematics

Wider strategies

Attendance: Use of an attendance tracking system to improve attendance.
Help and support children and families who are affected by poverty.

Full planning details for interventions are outlined in the ‘Intervention planning in full’ section.

Our review process

Annually reviewing a one-year pupil premium plan and creating a new plan each year is time-costly and ineffective. This three-year approach allows us to dedicate more time up-front and introduce light-touch reviews annually.

During a light-touch review, we will review the success of each intervention, based on evidence, and determine the most effective approach moving forwards – adapting, expanding or ceasing the intervention as required.

Individual targets are set for each pupil in receipt of the PPG and their progress towards achieving these targets is analysed at the end of interventions.

The progress of pupils in receipt of the PPG is regularly discussed with subject teachers.

Once the three-year term has been completed, a new three-year strategy will be created in light of the lessons learned during the execution of the previous strategy, and with regard to any new guidance and evidence of best practice that becomes available. The headteacher is responsible for ensuring a pupil premium strategy is always in effect.

Accountability

Ofsted inspections will report on the attainment and progress of disadvantaged pupils in receipt of the PPG.

The school is held to account for the spending of the PPG through the focus in Ofsted inspections on the progress and attainment of the wider pupil premium eligible cohort; however, they will not look for evidence of the grant’s impact on individual pupils, or on precise interventions.

What is Pupil Premium?

Eligibility and funding amounts

The pupil premium grant is funding provided to schools to close the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

A school will receive an amount of money for each pupil of compulsory school age who fits the eligibility criteria. There are five categories of eligible pupil. Each category attracts a different amount of funding.

Allocation

The grant is allocated in line with the financial year, which begins in April. Each year’s allocations are based on data from the previous January’s census. If an eligible pupil joins after the January census, the school will not receive pupil premium funding for his/her until the following year.

Maintained schools receive the pupil premium through their local authority (LA), whereas the Education Funding Agency allocates the funding directly to academies and free schools. Both academies and maintained schools receive the grant in quarterly instalments.

However, pupil premium funding for looked-after children (LAC) is not allocated to schools but to the virtual school head in the LA, who will work with the school to decide how it will be spent.

Spending the grant

The grant can be spent as each school sees fit, as long as it is used to demonstrably improve the attainment of eligible pupils. Schools do not need to spend an equal amount on each pupil, or use the money for interventions that benefit only eligible pupils.

However the grant should not be used to fund free school meals, as schools already receive funding for this through the dedicated schools grant.

Publishing information about pupil premium spending

Schools must publish information on their websites about the amount of pupil premium funding they have received, how it will be used, how the previous year’s allocation was spent, and the effect of this expenditure on the attainment of eligible pupils.

Early year’s pupil premium

In April 2015, an Early Years pupil premium (EYPP) was introduced for disadvantaged children aged three and four years old. All Early Years providers eligible to receive early education funding are also eligible to receive the EYPP

This money has been largely allocated to providing teaching assistant/staff support to deliver specific time for the children to address individual needs.

This is determined by scrutinising assessments, work in books, ways children respond and the range of support is planned for individuals.

Examples of the intervention last year included:

Additional daily reading (at least 15 minutes per day)
One to one support to cover gaps in understanding or specialist programmes to address areas for development
Emotional support providing a key worker to address anxiety, self-esteem, confidence issues
Support to manage and organise to be ready for learning including PE/practical tasks
Opportunities to complete homework in school
Key worker on residential visit to ensure inclusion
Key worker at swimming lessons to ensure inclusion
Additional resources to provide “reminders”
Physical literacy activities
Speech and language practice
Art therapy

The impact of these has meant every child has shown progress, in both small and larger steps over the course of the year which can be seen in books, in assessments and through observations.

Parents have also reported the positive impact the interventions have had during additional parent meetings. The children have gained in confidence and self- esteem and are able to actively seek support when needed and feel fully included in the life of the school.

A designated Governor for the pupil premium funding, monitors and feeds back on the use of the funding and has individual conversations about the anonymised interventions and strategies which are mainly recorded and reviewed in the child’s individual education plans or through pupil progress meetings with parents and teachers.