What is the Pupil Premium?

The Pupil Premium is additional funding to help schools close the attainment gap between children from low-income and other disadvantaged families and their peers. If a child has been eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point over the past 6 years or has been looked after for one day or more (Looked After Child), the school receives an amount per head within their budget. A provision is also made for children who have a parent in the armed services.

The DfE guidelines state:

Schools, head teachers and teachers will decide how to use the Pupil Premium allocation, as they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for individual pupils. It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools per FSM pupil, is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility.

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At Carlton Primary we believe that all children should have the same opportunities in life and pupil premium supports us in helping all of our disadvantaged children explore and access all the school and community have to offer. 

All members of our staff team, and our governors, accept responsibility for disadvantaged pupils and are committed to meeting their individual pastoral, social and academic needs within the school environment. We are committed to diminishing gaps between vulnerable pupils and their peers, and the pupil premium is an important tool in this process. Pupil premium helps remove barriers to learning so that all of our pupils reach their full potential and enables them to engage fully, both in our curriculum and the wider life of the school. 

Research conducted by the EEF concludes that common barriers to learning for disadvantaged children are: less support at home; weak language and communication skills; lack of confidence; more frequent behaviour difficulties and attendance and punctuality issues. We will ensure that all members of staff can identify disadvantaged pupils and are aware of strengths and areas for improvement across the school.

Principles that we lead/teach by:

• Adopting a whole school approach where all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged childrens’ outcomes and have consistently high expectations of what can be achieved.
• Ensuring quality first teaching and effective assessment meets the needs of all pupils. 
• Where appropriate, provision is made for pupils that belong to vulnerable groups including disadvantaged pupils.
• We will address non-academic barriers to learning such as attendance, behaviour, well-being and cultural capital, ensuring that disadvantaged pupils have access to a broad range of activities.
• Ensure disadvantaged children are supported and challenged by adapting the work they are set as required.
• Act quickly to identify needs and take appropriate action.

Central to our strategy is quality first teaching, we believe this is the best approach to support all children but particularly those children who are disadvantaged. Evidence demonstrates that this has the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and will benefit all of the children in our school.

We actively encourage the take-up of free school meals by working proactively with parents and carers in a sensitive and supportive manner, and seek to remove any potential barriers, or perceived stigma attached, to claiming free school meals.

In addition, disadvantaged children often suffer from mental health issues. In order to be able to learn and achieve, many of our children need support to be able to understand, and overcome, mental health challenges.  We at Carlton Church of England School understand these barriers and work to support disadvantaged families.