After prior attainment, poverty is the single most important factor in predicting a child’s future life chances.
Even the highest early achievers from deprived backgrounds are overtaken by lower achieving children from advantaged backgrounds by the end of KS1 and the likelihood of a pupil eligible for Free School Meals achieving the expected levels of progress are one third those of a non-FSM pupil.
The Pupil Premium funding is allocated to Local Authorities and schools with pupils from Reception to Y11 who are eligible for free school meals, are looked after or have parents currently in the Armed Forces.
In order to make best use of the fund, I can support schools to effectively identify under-achieving pupils and develop strategies to monitor their progress and identify barriers.
Find out how best to use the PPF in the handbook I wrote with Cambridgeshire Local Authority. Already given out to all Cambridgeshire schools, it has proved to be a valuable tool in making most effective use of the money.
The government is confident that schools will identify the most effective way to raise the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils. So, schools are free to spend the money in the best way they see fit. However they will be held accountable for how they have used the additional funding. New measures will be included in the performance tables that will capture the achievement of those deprived pupils. Schools are also required to publish online information about how they have used the Premium to ensure that parents and others are made fully aware of the attainment of pupils covered by the Premium.In the publication Twenty outstanding primary schools, OFSTED make it clear that;
It is no longer acceptable to use a child’s background as an excuse for underachievement. The challenge for schools is to make a difference. Schools know and try to do this; some are more successful than others.
So, how can these pupils be best supported? How should schools use the Pupil Premium fund to close this gap?
The Sutton trust have created a toolkit which summarises the research evidence on improving learning and attainment to support schools in making informed choices about how to support their pupils who are eligible for the Pupil Premium funding.
A full version of their toolkit is available to download.
Sutton Trust Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning – Summary for Schools Spending the Pupil Premium
Professional development packages are available to support the teaching approaches found to have the highest impact for lowest cost;
- Effective feedback
- Meta-cognition; Learning to learn
In addition, I can also provide training and support for one to one tuition and peer coaching.
Please contact me for further information.
To find out more about the Pupil Premium, please visit http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/premium/a0076063/pupil-premium-what-you-need-to-know
