St James Pupil Premium Strategy 2020-21

Introduction – What is Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium funding is a national initiative, launched in 2011, designed to raise attainment for all disadvantaged pupils.

‘Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is the greatest challenge facing English schools. The gap is stubborn because its causes are entrenched and complex, and most lie beyond the control of schools and educators. However, it is clear that schools can make a difference.

In England, the gap has closed in both primary and secondary schools since the introduction of the Pupil Premium, and in every part of the country schools have demonstrated how great teaching and careful planning can make a huge impact on the outcomes of disadvantaged children.’

Education Endowment Foundations – The EEF Guide to Pupil Premium Funding

For further details visit: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/Publication_s/Pupil_Premium_Guidance_iPDF.pdf

Strategy – A tiered approach

At St James School we have adopted a tiered approach to Pupil Premium spending which allows the school to focus on a series of targeted strategies which will have the greatest impact. These are:

1. Teaching

Spending on improving teaching and providing professional development opportunities is at the forefront of our approach. Ensuring that every pupil is receiving the best quality experience in the classroom that we can offer is essential to success, and it is therefore the top priority for our Pupil Premium spending.

2. Targeted academic support

Evidence consistently demonstrates the positive impact of well-planned and delivered targeted academic support. We use a variety of support mechanisms including 1:1 and small group support as a key part of our strategy, to supplement effective classroom teaching and learning.

3. Wider strategies

The final element of our approach is to provide support in tackling the most significant, non-academic barriers to success at school, including attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support.

 

 St James School – A Tiered Approach

1. Teaching

• Coaching programme of teacher development and training
• Refinement of the Behaviour Policy
• Development of a Common Curriculum and resource development
• Development of the literacy and numeracy tutor programme
• Sparx program in maths
• MFL Hub School and EBacc focus
• NPQ courses available for middle and senior leaders
• Explicit vocabulary focus across the curriculum
• PIXL school
• Quality assurance reviews
• Knowledge Organiser homeworks
• Use of Classcharts
• Enrichment opportunities
• The JBacc

 Targeted Academic Support

• Small classes for additional literacy and numeracy
• TA support in lessons
• Emotional focussed mentoring and support
• Academic focussed mentoring based on rigorous analysis of testing
• 1:1 academic tutoring
• 1:1 bought-in mentoring
• Aspiration-raising mentoring such as Coachbright, Exeter Scholars and Brilliant Clubs
• Early Help support

 3. Wider Strategies

• Free Breakfast Club
• Summer School for new Year 7 PP pupils
• Independent Study Club
• Extra-curricular clubs (C19 permitting)
• Additional pastoral interventions as ‘waves of support’
• School productions
• Independent Careers Advice for Year 11
• Careers South West and Next Steps South West input for PP pupils
• Early Help for Mental Health
• Social skills and life skills interventions
• Investment in IT support

 

Contextual Information

Metric	Data
School name	St James School
Pupils in school	972
Proportion of disadvantaged pupils	29.5%
Pupil premium allocation this academic year	£292,650
Academic year or years covered by statement	2020-21
Publish date	October 2020
Review date	October 2021
Statement authorised by	Lindsay Skinner
Pupil premium lead	Tamar Busby
Governor lead	Belynda Jenkinson

Disadvantaged pupil performance overview for last academic year

Progress 8	unpublished due to C19
Ebacc entry	unpublished due to C19
Attainment 8	unpublished due to C19
Percentage of Grade 5+ in English and maths	unpublished due to C19

Strategy aims for disadvantaged pupils

Aim	Target	Target date
Progress 8	+0.15	September  2021
Attainment 8	46	September 2021
Percentage of Grade 5+ in English and maths	50	September 2021
Ebacc entry	38	September 2021

Teaching priorities for current academic year

Barriers to learning that we aim to address through these priorities:

• That PP pupils are more likely make poor progress and leave with poorer results than their peers and this is likely to have been exacerbated by the lockdown period
• That PP pupils are more likely to be sanctioned repeatedly and are more likely to be identified as being less engaged in lessons than their peers
• That PP pupils are more likely to have lower prior attainment compared to their peers and that we believe this is linked to weaker learning habits and vocabulary skills
• That the curriculum is increasingly knowledge focussed and we believe that PP pupils are likely to have had less prior exposure to this knowledge than their peers

 

	Activity	Outcome
Priority 1	To improve teaching and learning by embedding a coaching model	Lessons are well constructed and delivered, leading to improved results
Priority 2	To embed a refined behaviour management strategy and a ‘waved’ provision of support	Behaviour for learning is excellent in all lessons, allowing all students to learn and improving results
Priority 3	To develop a 12 week teaching cycle of teaching, assessment, moderation, intervention and reporting	Teachers will be able to identify gaps in learning and address them effectively to that students can make good progress
Projected spending	Coaching Behaviour support	c. £107,439 c. £68,705

 

Targeted academic support for current academic year

Barriers to learning that we aim to address through these priorities:

• That PP pupils are more likely make poor progress and leave with poorer results than their peers
• That PP pupils are more likely to be sanctioned repeatedly and are more likely to be identified as being less engaged in lessons than their peers.
• That PP pupils are more likely to have lower prior attainment compared to their peers and that we believe this is linked to weaker learning habits and vocabulary skills

 

 

	Activity	Outcome
Priority 1	Development of literacy programmes and their embedding through a St James School canon.	Students will develop their reading fluency and ability to employ effective reading strategies
Priority 2	Targeted 1:1 academic tutoring for students who have fallen behind/been especially disadvantaged by the lockdown.	This will target students who were especially disadvantaged by the lockdown period so that they can close the gap in their learning and improve their results
Projected spending	Literacy programmes 1:1 tutoring	£10,600 c. £40,500

Wider strategies for current academic year

Barriers to learning that we aim to address through these priorities:

• That PP pupils are more likely make poor progress and leave with poorer results than their peers
• That PP pupils are more likely to have lower prior attainment compared to their peers and that we believe this is linked to weaker learning habits and vocabulary skills
• That the curriculum is increasingly knowledge focussed and we believe that PP pupils are likely to have had less prior exposure to this knowledge than their peers

 

	Activity	Outcome
Priority 1	Introduction of Knowledge Organisers	Students will have ongoing access to the key terms and homework will have a positive impact on progress, leading to improved results.
Priority 2	Mentoring programmes and support within the ‘waves of support’ behaviour strategy	Students will be in their lessons and better able to complete their learning tasks, leading to improved results.
Priority 3	The development of a plan for daily enrichment to include careers, PIXL Edge and CAS (creativity, activity and service) opportunities	Students will be given the opportunity to access high quality enrichment opportunities
Projected spending	Knowledge Organisers Mentoring programmes	£6,000 £64,731

 

 

 

Monitoring and implementation

Area	Challenge	Mitigating action
Teaching	Sustaining high quality implementation	Time and resources clearly allocated Senior and experienced staff allocated to oversight Trust-wide involvement/accountability Quality assurance processes in place
Targeted support	Creation of high quality  programmes High quality implementation	Allocation of experienced SLT to these projects Recruitment of suitably qualified tutors and regular monitoring Regular monitoring and reviews
Wider strategies	Lack of student engagement in planned activities	Regular monitoring and feedback on Knowledge Organisers and homework completion Termly updates of Knowledge Organisers Regular allocation meetings to allocate students to mentoring provisions and monitoring of outcomes

Review: last year’s aims and outcomes

Aim	Outcome
To improve teaching and learning by embedding a coaching model	Coaches were trained and coaching was taking place and was recorded on PAS. It was not possible to progress it further due to the constraints of lockdown. Further refinements have been made this year, based on learning from what was undertaken last year.
To embed a refined behaviour management strategy	The Reflection, Refocus and Reset rooms were established. The Behaviour Policy has been refined and relaunched with staff and students.
To develop a common curriculum with other Trust schools	This has begun to be implemented. Again, progress on this was somewhat limited by the lockdown.
Development of literacy programmes and their embedding	Laura Newton has taken on responsibility for this and a new specialist teaching assistant has been recruited. A canon was prepared for use in 2020-21.
Development of mentoring programmes and their embedding	This had limited impact due to the lockdown.
Introduction of Knowledge Organisers	The Knowledge Organiser was introduced in the autumn and spring terms but was of limited use during lockdown. Refinements have been made to the Knowledge Organiser for this year in the light of reviewing and also progress from the development of the common curriculum.
Refinement of Enrichment Week	A programme of activities was developed to offer high quality experiences to enhance mental and physical health, sports, the arts and culture. Unfortunately this had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

 

Summary information
School	St James School
Academic Year	18-19	Total PP budget	£253,100	Date of most recent PP Review	January 2018
Total number of pupils	905	Number of pupils eligible for PP	281	Date for next internal review of this strategy	Jan 2019

We promise to develop students who:

• Inspire each other to achieve and experience great things
• Are confident enough to be individually resilient and collectively interdependent
• Have a sense of self-worth and are respectful to the world around them
• Are open minded, receptive and kind to people, ideas and change
• Enjoy life and want to explore it by experiencing new things