Pupil Premium

St Helen’s Pupil premium strategy statement 2023-24

This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium for the 2023 to 2024 academic year) funding to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged pupils. It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year and the effect that last year’s spending of pupil premium had within our school.

School overview

Detail

Data

School name

St Helen’s Catholic Primary School

Number of pupils in school

420

Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible pupils

20% -83

Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers

2021-2024

Date this statement was published

November 2023

Date on which it will be reviewed

November 2024

Statement authorised by

Elizabeth Mouchel-Headteacher

Pupil premium lead

Helima Curtis-Assistant Headteacher

Governor / Trustee lead

Mrs Pat Blight

Funding overview

Detail

Amount

Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year

£120,765

Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year

£12,035

School led tutoring grant

£5,332.50

Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable)

£0

Total budget for this academic year

If your school is an academy in a trust that pools this funding, state the amount available to your school this academic year

£ 138,132.50

Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan

Statement of intent

At St Helen’s our intention is for all pupil premium pupils to reach high levels of attainment in all subject areas and to achieve the age expectation (in reading, writing and maths) by the end of Year 6. Many of our children including pupil premium children have barriers to reaching their full potential and being able to succeed, including vulnerable pupils such as those who are LAC or young carers. We are committed to supporting all children to reach their full potential.

As well as offering a range of interventions to close the gap in academic learning we also offer interventions to support children to develop social and emotional skills as well as skills they may have missed such as interventions to develop fine motor skills etc.

To ensure that additional academic support is successful it is essential that children attend school regularly. St Helen’s will work with families alongside the attendance team, to ensure high levels of attendance for all children through continued monitoring and support. We will also support families with persistent lateness and enable them to improve so that children are at school on time to engage fully in their learning opportunities.

At St. Helen’s, we have put the following plan in place in order to accelerate the progress of our Pupil Premium pupils, including those who are already higher attainers.

OUR PLAN:

  • 1. At St Helen’s we understand that every child should experience quality first teaching. We will ensure that each child experiences quality first teaching and a variety of well-planned learning opportunities in all subject areas including Maths and English.This will include different levels of challenges available to all pupils. This process includes:
  • 2. We will continue to use English and Maths intervention groups and the catch up reading programme to narrow the attainment gap for Pupil Premium pupils in relation to age expectations. Pupils will receive regular targeted support when needed. This also includes plans for education recovery through the school led tutoring programme.
  • The effective support of scaffolded learning prompts and success criteria. This helps to build resilience and independence - essential skills for lifelong learners.
  • A Marking in the Moment approach which includes self and peer assessment so pupils get immediate feedback. This will ensure the correcting of misconceptions and hence progress will be made more quickly.


3. Interventions are in place for any SEND/PP pupils when needed.

4. We will use our Nurture provision when needed, where pupils will be supported in developing their social and emotional skills and help to develop their personal well-being.


5. We will support Pupil Premium pupils who have English as an additional language either individually or in a small group with their speaking and listening, grammar and comprehension skills. They will also be supported with their understanding of Mathematical vocabulary.


6. We support Pupil Premium pupils as early as possible in their school life. We prioritise extra staffing in EYFS/KS1 in order to ensure early identification of any learning gaps. Effective interventions can then quickly be put into place to fill these gaps.


We will also support Parent/Carers by offering free Breakfast club places and to offer individual support to families as needs become apparent - see pupil support section below.

FUNDING IN 23/24 WILL BE USED FOR:

Contributions to Staffing costs:

  • Nurture staff
  • Extra Teaching Assistant hours
  • Counselling
  • Funding Breakfast Club places
  • CPD

In addition funding is also used for :

Pupil Support (if requested) - £5000:

  • To fund residential trips
  • To fund music lessons
  • To provide uniform and shoes
  • To fund swimming lessons
  • To respond to any other requests during this time of cost of living crisis
  • Resources

Challenges

This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.

Challenge number

Detail of challenge

1

Disadvantaged pupils are at risk of attaining less well in reading. This may be due to not reading enough outside of school. The pupils’ limited experiences will impact their comprehension skills, vocabulary and overall understanding.

2

Disadvantage pupils are at risk of performing less well in writing because they can find language processing and retention difficult. They may lack confidence when listening and responding and find it challenging to structure and hold sentences. This then impacts on their ability to retain language facts, such as grammar, punctuation and spellings easily.

3

Disadvantage pupils are at risk of performing less well in maths because they do not have a secure understanding of number, do not retain number facts and have difficulty using and applying their learning when solving their problems.

4

Disadvantaged pupils in the Early Years and Keys Stage 1 are at risk of being behind more advantaged counterparts in developing early language and oracy skills; this has the potential to affect their school experience and impact negatively on learning later in their education.

5

A significant number of disadvantaged children have non-academic challenges such as social and emotional barriers to learning, including attendance and persistent absence.

Approximately 17% of Pupil Premium children are receiving nurture support or other emotional/behavioural support including support from our school counsellor and self-regulation sports support.

Approximately 18% of PP children have attendance below 90% (persistent absenteeism) compared to 10% for non PP pupils for the same period.

6

A number of disadvantaged children have barriers to learning including negative learning behaviours and being ready to learn.

Intended outcomes

This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.

Intended outcome

Success criteria

To improve children’s oral language including vocabulary, listening and speaking skills.

  • Pupils will make additional progress in oral language and early word reading skills.

To improve reading by the end of EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, focusing on pupils’ engagement and enjoyment, frequency and comprehension skills.

  • Pupils make accelerated progress in reading so the proportion of disadvantaged pupils are reaching the expected standard by the end of each key stage.
  • Results at each key stage in reading will be at or above the national average.
  • All pupils in our school will have the expected reading skills in order to access the rest of the curriculum and to have a love of reading.

To improve pupils’ ability to use language and apply this to speaking, listening and writing, including vocabulary and spelling.

  • Pupils will make accelerated progress in writing so that the proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard by the end of KS1 and KS2 is at or above the national average

To continue to improve pupils’ attainment in maths, using resources such as Big Maths to assess attainment and, fill gaps, and monitor progress.

  • Pupils will make accelerated progress in maths so that the proportion of disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard by the end of KS1 and KS2 is at or above the national average.

To accelerate the progress of the most able pupils, including the most able disadvantaged,

  • Attainment will rise overall in KS2.

SEND pupils are well supported to meet their individual needs.

  • Pupils will access learning which is appropriate for their needs and will make good progress (evidenced through class workbooks/monitoring of half termly data, monitoring interventions for impact, monitoring well-being etc.)

Identified social and emotional barriers to learning are addressed for individual pupils

  • Pupils with identified needs will be supported to overcome barriers to learning, including SEMH and poor attendance.

Activity in this academic year

This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) in the academic year 23-24 to address the challenges listed above.

Teaching (for example, CPD, recruitment and retention)

Budgeted cost: £12,687 ( including all items in Ed tech budget e.g. tenten, Ed shed sonar tracker, Nessy subscription, , NFER test materials, Early Excellence CPD, phonics books and online resources .

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Quality First Teaching through effective support, including through planning and monitoring

Improving teachers QFT and their impact on learning is a priority for the school; we know that Quality first teaching makes the greatest difference and will therefore use a proportion of the funding to invest in this.

1-4

High quality CPD to support effective curriculum development

Supporting teachers to improve their skills is a high priority as we understand this has a huge impact on teaching and learning. We use a proportion of our budget to invest in CPD , as well as online subscriptions to extend teacher knowledge (including, The National College, TenTen CPD package and outside providers )

1-4

Termly focussed assessment weeks using NFER and White Rose

Since these tests have been introduced they are proving to be useful for identifying gaps as well as using regular self, peer and teacher assessment.

Appropriate interventions are then put in place and monitored for impact.

1-4

Boxall profile assessment

This assessment gives an effective assessment of pupils SEMH needs as well as targets and next steps to support pupils

5

Targeted academic support (for example, tutoring, one-to-one support structured interventions)

Budgeted cost: £92,000 (includes school led - £5,332.50 ,cogmed working memory training- £1,627, catch up reading training £799,staffing costs for catch up reading, KS2 staff and additional adults in EYFS, KS1 and KS2

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

School Led Tutoring and

A range of interventions will be used across Key Stage 2 to increase attainment and progress. The SLT use data to identify children. They then use this data to perform gap analysis and have professional dialogues with class teachers to plan targeted interventions for children. They focus on the specific areas of learning where there is the greatest gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Intervention staff then carry out these interventions.

1-4

Catch up reading

The SLT use data to identify children. They then use this data to perform gap analysis and have professional dialogues with class teachers to plan targeted interventions for children who may benefit from Catch up Reading.. They focus on the specific areas of learning where there is the greatest gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers. Intervention staff then carry out these interventions.

1-4

EYFS support

An additional adult is employed specifically to support disadvantaged pupils as early intervention is proven to have the best outcome.

1-5

Year 1 and 2 phonics support

An additional adult is employed specifically to support disadvantaged pupils as early intervention is proven to have the best outcome.

1 and 4

Y1 and Y2 afternoon support

Four additional adults are employed to support KS1

4

KS2 pm’s

Four additional adults are employed to support KS2

1-3

Wider strategies (for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)

Budgeted cost: £ 35,818

(includes cost attendance package - approximately £2,000 (£650 termly), cost of counselling -£3500, play therapy -£1,583 for 12 weeks, nurture support staff cost £10,000 1 hour sports partnership £1,170, cost of PDMA (Callum) – 5 sessions per term –approx.3,600, Breakfast club – approximately £2,500 & £5000 any individual support needs)

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Inclusion Support-co-ordinated by AHT for Inclusion along with SLT

Inclusion support forms a highly effective part of the school, providing bespoke targeted support to pupils in order for them to manage and/or overcome social, emotional and behavioural barriers affecting their learning. Support is targeted towards vulnerable pupils, family support and work in partnership with external agencies regarding the welfare of children.

5

Nurture support (Rainbow Room ) provided 4 afternoons each week

This provides bespoke targeted support to pupils in order for them to manage and/or overcome social, emotional and behavioural barriers based on Nurture principles.

Bike club is provided one afternoon per week by the nurture team

5

Learning mentor support

This support is often provided to groups of children who benefit from a small ‘Circle of friends ‘group to address issues such as learning to develop friendships. Support is also provided on a 1-1 basis for identified children

5

School counsellor

The counselling programme at St Helen’s allows us to support those pupils most in need of specialist support.

5

Attendance Team support

Southend attendance team meets regularly to identify children whose attendance is below expected. They provide support during school meetings with parents, looking at barriers to attendance and how this can be improved.

5

PDMA

This is used to support children with specific needs of struggling with emotional regulation. A mixture of sporting activity and talk therapy is used to support children to make positive changes which will have a positive impact on access to learning. We are particularly targeting Y4

5

Play therapy

This is an additional specialist support to target specific children.

5

Total budgeted cost: £ 140,505

Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year

Pupil premium strategy outcomes

This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2022-2023 academic year.

OUTCOMES FOR 2022-2023

Whilst there is no validated data to show the impact of our Pupil Premium strategy, the school’s internal assessment processes have been rigorous, designed to develop clarity about children’s strengths and weaknesses. Teachers used NFER and White Rose assessments as well as Target Tracker (now updated to Sonar tracker) and a range of evidence sources from the children’s class work, to consider how well children were learning in reading, writing and mathematics to ensure their judgements were as robust as possible.

Pupil Premium outcomes

PP children meeting age related expectations July 2023

Year

Reading

Writing

Maths

Reception (9)

(2 EHCP plans, 2 Sp&L,1 EAL)

44% GLD

1 (10)

80%

80%

80%

2 (13)

69%

54%

69%

3 (13)

64%

50%

50%

4 (12)

25%

17%

25%

5 (20)

45%

35%

40%

6 (18)

67%

78%

72%

Externally provided programmes

Please include the names of any non-DfE programmes that you purchased in the previous academic year. This will help the Department for Education identify which ones are popular in England

Programme

Provider

None

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