Pupil Premium is a government funding allowance that is additional to the main funding schools receive. It was introduced in April 2011 to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England.  It is used for the benefit of pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past six years, those who have been adopted from care or have left care and children who are looked after by the local authority. Evidence shows that these pupils generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.

Schools decide how they spend their Pupil Premium, as they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for individual pupils within their care to ensure it has the highest possible impact on attainment and success. Expenditure is monitored closely, with all schools accountable for the impact of the money spent. 

Purpose

The main focus of Roman Fields Academy spending of pupil premium is to improve outcomes for our vulnerable pupils, and therefore narrow the gap between pupils on free school meals and the rest of the school population. To do this we

• Ensure teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all complex vulnerable pupils, who all have an EHCP.

• Provision is made for all pupils who belong to every vulnerable group, given our small cohort.

• In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged.

• We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered, or qualify for, free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the pupil premium funding to support any pupil, or groups of pupils, the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

• Pupil premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis, which will identify priority classes, groups and/or individuals. Limited funding and resources means that not all pupils receiving free school meals will be in receipt of pupil premium intervention at the same time.

How the pupil premium is allocated?

Funding for financial year 2022 to 2023

Schools will receive £985 for pupils in year 7 to year 11.  The pupil premium for 2022 to 2023 will include pupils recorded in the January 2022 school census who have had a recorded period of free school meals (FSM) eligibility since May 2015, as well as those first recorded as eligible at January 2022.

Schools will receive £2,410 for any pupil identified in the January 2022 school census as having left local authority care as a result of:

• adoption

• a special guardianship order

• a child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order)

• local authority care, for 1 day or more

• eligibility for FSM in the last 6 years and as result of being looked after (or as having left local authority care)

For pupils who attract the £2,410 rate, the virtual school head will manage the funding.

Academies receive their instalments on:

• 8 July 2022

• 10 October 2022

• 10 January 2023

• 12 April 2023

Focus for the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG)

We strive to ensure pupils have access to opportunities for learning that inspire them, push their boundaries and engage them in order to develop independence. With high expectations, knowledge and understanding about learning difficulties, deprivation and attachment disorder, we seek to deliver a holistic approach to identifying successful strategies and successful methodologies for improving access to learning for each unique and individual child, accessing the PPG.

We do this:

• Through an analysis of where pupils are underachieving and why

• Focus on high quality teaching, supported by integrated with intervention

• Systematic focus on clear pupil feedback and advice for improving their work within the marking policy

• Through a deep understanding of the needs of children and their individual and collective barriers to learning.

• Regular Pupil Progress Meetings and frequent use of achievement data to check the effectiveness of an intervention, where the school adjusts techniques constantly, rather than waiting until after an intervention.

• Strategies available for improving attendance, behaviour and family links where these are an issue

• Robust monitoring

• Effective Performance Appraisals of staff.

• Analysis of data to understand patterns of under and over achievement.

• Setting of specific success criteria and the impact of such on learning.

• Through reviewing our approaches.

Roman Fields seeks to address the holistic learning needs of every pupil, with particular attention to those accessing PPG by:

• Developing creative programmes to work with PPG pupils in order to ensure strong progress towards their determined EHCP Outcomes.

• Ensuring ‘Pupil Pathways’ for accreditation success are co-produced.

• Establishing clear pathways for intervention that are relevant, timely and impact on the pupils’ attainment.

• Ensuring targets for all pupils including those accessing the PPG remain stretching and benchmarked against national expectations.

• Staff within the school know the vulnerabilities of all ‘PPG’ pupils and potential barriers to learning whilst regularly reviewing their progress. This is undertaken through additional training of current staff and new starters.

• Addressing the attendance issues of PPG pupils and tracking intervention to support fuller attendance.

• Knowing what other vulnerable groups our FSM pupils fall into and enabling the tracking of intervention as a PPG pupil with appropriate and timely strategies.

• Making appropriate modifications to high quality teaching, including guided work to suit individuals accessing the PPG.

• 1:1 guidance through coaching, mentoring, counselling and art therapy for those PPG pupils who can access this support.

• Training staff to ensure pupils have opportunities to apply and consolidate learning in a range of contexts.

• Facilitating opportunities for sharing with colleague’s successful practices, which raise attainment of vulnerable pupils.

• Evaluating the impact of the quality of provision for PPG pupils through pupil voice, work scrutiny, data and observations.

• Enabling children who access the Pupil Premium to participate in a range of events and activities.

For more information, please see the link below.