The Pupil Premium Grant is additional funding for the school from the Government, based on the number of pupils eligible, or who have been eligible, for free school meals (FSM) within the last six years.
The funding is designed to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for FSM and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.
Each school can make its own decisions about how to spend this funding, but schools are accountable for what the funding is spent on, and must show that they have achieved value for money through improving the progress of the targeted children.
PPG was introduced in 2011. The grant is currently paid at £1,455 per child (there are different levels of funding for service children or children who have been adopted from care).
In addition to PPG, in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 we received an allocation of the Government’s Covid ‘catch-up’ or recovery funding which is included in these plans.
We review our strategy in the Autumn term each year.
At St. Luke’s Church of England Primary School, we have high aspirations and ambitions for our children. We strongly believe in developing the necessary skills and values required to succeed in life. Our pupils in receipt of the Pupil Premium Funding face specific barriers to reaching their full potential, and we are determined to provide the support and guidance they need to help them overcome these. In addition to this, we aim to provide them with access to a variety of exciting opportunities and a rich and varied curriculum.
In 2024/25, we continue to focus on the use of small group and one to one teaching to allow teachers meet the specific needs of the children and have address particular barriers. This has also allowed teachers to have higher quality interactions with pupils and increased the quality and quantity of feedback. We continue to supplement this with interventions through Preteach, EPS Maths and RWI tuition.
We continue build on intensive CPD work in 2022/23 to help support our teaching and Learning Support Assistant staff to build their skills and capacity in delivering quality reading and phonic support to PPG pupils. While now applying learning from our KS1 phonics scheme into our teaching of spellings in KS2.
We continue to invest in the role of a Family Welfare Officer who provides access to social, emotional and mental health support for both pupils and families.
In 2024/25 we are funding the provision of enrichment opportunities for PPG pupils and have reviewed our leadership model in order to track, support and provide support to teachers more effectively.
Our startegy is regularly monitored by the Governoring Body and those responsible are recorded on the Strategy Statement document.