Pupil Premium 2023 - 2024

What is the Pupil Premium Grant?

The pupil premium grant is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England. It’s a school-level grant that gives schools extra resources to help them meet challenges, including those arising from deprivation. In the 2019 to 2020 financial year, schools will receive £935 for each pupil registered as eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last 6 years.

What is our rationale for the Pupil Premium Grant?

• Improve the academic outcomes of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities
• Close the attainment and progress gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers
• Identify and implement strategies that help to increase social mobility
• Enhance pupils’ cultural literacy and wider enrichment opportunities

What barriers do pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant face?

The barriers and challenges disadvantaged pupils face are complex and varied- there is no single difficulty faced by all. Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is the greatest challenge facing schools. The gap is stubborn because it’s 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.

We aim to:

• Draw on research, best practice in and evidence from our own experience to direct funding to a school offer that is most likely to maximise achievement
• Never confuse eligibility for the Pupil Premium with low ability, and focus on supporting our disadvantaged students to achieve the highest levels
• Minimise potential barriers to learning and thereby maximise progress and achievement
• Advantage the most disadvantaged students thorough whole school and sometimes more targeted offer
• Ensure all pupils eligible for the pupil premium make excellent academic progress and achieve beyond expectation
• Ensure there is transparency, through our reporting mechanisms, to demonstrate how and why this funding has been spent
• Ensure we recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals and reserve the right to allocate the pupil premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged
• Ensure parents of disadvantaged children understand they can make a positive contribution to their children’s achievement at BFS by working alongside the school in harmony and recognising that parent involvement makes a difference.