St James Primary School
Pupil premium Spending 2015-16
Actions and impact report
The Pupil Premium Allocation for 2015-16 was £141,240
Headlines
The high proportion of pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds do well at the school. This is because
the school makes very effective use of the pupil premium funding (additional government funding
for disadvantaged pupils) that it receives. Additional support is provided for pupils who are in danger
of falling behind, through small-group and one-to-one interventions. The school employs a family
support worker to work alongside pupils, parents and carers to carefully match provision to
individual needs. OFSTED Feb 2016
You have an effective pastoral inclusion team, ably led by an inclusion manager who works with staff
to liaise with and support vulnerable or disadvantaged pupils and families. Pupil premium funding is
being used effectively to target disadvantaged pupils. The funding is used to deploy family support
and welfare staff to work with vulnerable families and this is having a significant impact on
improving attendance rates in most year groups. In addition, persistent absence rates have halved
this year compared with the same point in time last year. It is also significant that assessment
information shows that disadvantaged pupils are catching up on the progress that other pupils make
in reading, writing and mathematics HMI September 2016
Approach/Resource
Cost
Continue to employ a part
time Inclusion Manager
(part funded 0.4)
£12,654
Details and Impact
Access to support from a member of staff with broad expertise
including social work skills and experience with looked after and
adopted children. This enabled the school to manage the increase in
terms of LAC with a growing number throughout the year. Effectively
secured additional funding for LAC children and almost all showed
significant improving in terms of learning and growing socially and
emotionally.
Lead on the development of a new inclusion team and improved ways
of working to support disadvantaged children. This included
establishing and leading weekly meetings for inclusion. This is part of a
team approach to personal development, behaviour and welfare of
pupil premium children. HMI commented Sept 16 that we have an
effective pastoral inclusion team, ably led by an inclusion manager who
works with staff to liaise with and support vulnerable or disadvantaged
pupils and families.
Intervention support overseen by the inclusion manager has shown to
have impact (see impact of teaching assistants).
Contribution towards
Deputy Head Salary
£10,000
DH has played a day to day role in supporting inclusion, including
supporting Early Help, and carrying out the role of Child Protection
Officer. Impact on helping families is outlined in various case studies.
Sourced additional support and funding for certain families, holiday
activity opportunities etc. Sourced funding for breakfast club provision
to enable disadvantaged pupils to access free breakfast provision.
Uptake increased throughout the year with close to 20% of children
accessing this provision.
The DHT managed transition to new Parent support Worker and
effectively supported development of this role throughout Spring 16 so
that she was able to take over additional elements of inclusion and
supporting safeguarding which were previously the DHT role.
Employ a Parent Support
and Liaison Co-ordinator
(80% contribution to salary)
Increased involvement in supporting safeguarding, supporting capacity
of school to respond to increased numbers.
£10,400
OFSTED Feb 2016 : The arrangements for safeguarding are effective.
School leaders, including governors, place a high priority on ensuring
that children are safe and secure in school. Staff are well trained and
have a very good understanding of their responsibilities and the actions
they should take if they have any concerns. Good use is made of
external agencies and expertise within the staff to support vulnerable
children’
The role several families to be supported through families, Early Help
and at Child In Need. The PSW ran friends for life for a group of
children, and parenting classes, introducing the Solihull approach to
school. Parenting classes well attended and valued by group attending.
Altered hours have meant increased access for parents. Parental and
child feedback is highly positive, and the role has improved parental
engagement with the school.
Nurture provision for
children with
social/emotional
difficulties. Cost also
includes training for TAs
£9,100
Contribution towards
funding transport for
educational visits
£5,000
Employ good quality
Teaching Assistants to
provide intervention, both
in terms of systematic and
timely support booster
programmes for pupils who
are in danger of falling
£45,080
Various activities provided with a small team of staff included
Meditation (bought in programme spring / summer 2016 and
opportunity for TA CPD). This specifically supported year 6, a class with
a high number of PP children, and children reported that this has
helped them in preparing for the SATs tests. The class dealt with the
SATs very well, and achieved their potential in most areas.
Lunchtime nurture sessions for children and additional 1 to 1 and small
group support from linked TAs which supported improvements in
behaviour at lunchtime and a decrease in exclusions.
Small group sessions throughout the school on anger management etc.
Provided opportunities to enhance learning through visits outside of
school eg. more able reader visit to London (linked to whole school
focus on encouraging more children from disadvantaged families to
read). Each class has access to 1 visit per term which was subsidised to
enable all disadvantaged pupils to access a breadth of curriculum
enhancement visits. This funded not only coaches but visits by bus into
Walsall for eg.
OFSTED 2016 confirmed that additional support is deployed well in the
school. The support of teaching assistants was evaluated and
deployment altered as needed to ensure TAs are providing good value
for money. Monitoring showed that there was targeted planning and
awareness in terms of narrowing gaps for PP children, and these are
highlighted on booster groups to make tracking impact more effective.
TAs are involved in planning and evaluating along with the teacher, as
part of a new assessment system.
behind and accelerating the
progress of all pupils.
72 hrs per week (
contribution to 9 TAs)
Additional TA support in year 2 in the mornings supported excellent
progress in year 2 in 2015-16, evidenced through the end of key stage
outcomes. Outcomes were close to national in reading and 7% above in
writing and maths. Disadvantaged group were close to national for all
children in writing and maths. This was from a low starting point of 40%
Good Level of Development at the end of reception.
Year 6 : the % of disadvantaged children meeting in all areas except
reading was in line or nearly in line with all children. Maths
disadvantaged group scored higher than all children group nationally,
and the % of disadvantaged children meeting in writing close to
national ‘all children’ group. This highlights a strength in closing the gap
in most areas. It should also be noted that 70% of children were
disadvantaged in this cohort.
Funding was used in order to raising aspirations and identifypupils who
have a musical talent which can be nurtured and developed further.
Music is a strength in the school. This is part of a commitment to support
PP children to develop abilities and skills in areas where they can show
future success.
Provide musical tuition for
all Year 5 pupils
£4,428
Provide opportunities to
access more creative
learning opportunities
through wider curriculum
enhancement
opportunities.
£5,000
The school funded a variety of curriculum enhancement opportunities
and theme days and weeks such as RAP maths day (with drama group),
Shakespeare play, a range of visitors to support children in learning
about other cultures in the February and July culture weeks, various
visits subsidised. These opportunities also often involved inviting in
parents and carers to learn with the children eg. family breakfast in
culture week was highly successful. Also themed breakfast eg, German
breakfast. Funding was used to resource these opportunities in terms
of buying in expertise, resources and rewards.
Contribution to staffing of
breakfast provision
£6,000
To fund TA hours in order to support breakfast provision offered to
children who do not access this at home. The club regularly has up to
35 children with a significant proportion being PP children. This was
used on several occasions successfully as an opportunity to get children
in on time (eg. offer at meeting re. lateness in reception)
Provide top up funding for
Sport and healthy living
£3000
Provided free of charge in order to raise aspirations and provide an
opportunity to try new sports activities. Good take up in activities such
as fencing, wheelchair basketball. Opportunities for sports on several
days. Children very eager to stay at school and join in.
Resources for intervention
booster sessions : English
and Maths
£4,000
High quality resources purchased to support teachers and teaching
assistants in working with children to ensure any gaps in knowledge
and understanding are addressed. See impact in terms of improved
outcomes in TA section.
Staff professional
development
£3,000
CPD on programmes such as neuro-linguistic programming and
attachment disorder for all staff contributed to strong inclusion support
for vulnerable children.
CPD on support for spelling and reading (all staff) contributed to
improvements in outcomes.
Contribution towards
software to support the
tracking of pupil premium
spending
£1,500
Supporting a more rigorous approach to tracking pupil premium to
ensure that it is allocated and reported on effectively
Parent and child support
hours at the beginning of
the day for TAs
£4,000
TAs are now starting just before the beginning of school instead of at
9am. This has resulted in them being able to engage with parents and
children in order to ensure that children have everything they need to
make the best of learning opportunities. TAs have been able to support
identified children at the beginning of the day eg. those coming late,
not having had breakfast etc. New system for registering issues with
office using SIMs enables parents to be contacted where children are
not appropriately resourced for school.
Lease of a minibus
£5,000
A new minibus lease (Oct 15) has enabled children to access
opportunities during and outside of school time which they might not
ordinarily be able to otherwise access. Eg. taking part in sports
matches. This has also allowed access to a wider range of school visits
through partnering with another local school which also has a minibus.
Increased funding to
support continued work on
improving attendance
£5,378
Funding increased roles for office, increased hours for parent support
and liaison co-ordinator post April 16 and LA SATs package to monitor
attendance including attendance of disadvantaged and other groups.
Attendance continued to improve and was close to 96% for 2015-16 (a
continued improving trend).
Targeted support for y5, a
large class of 34 children
with high SEN and
vulnerable children
Spring term targeted
support by qualified teacher
for groups of identified
children
Spring term Deputy Head
morning session teaching
group of identified
vulnerable children in y5
Extra TA hours Spring term
to support booster sessions
y5
An additional teacher supported y5 since Jan reading and spelling and
extra support for a LAC child.
£4,250
£2,800
£650
Smaller group size for morning session each day supported progress
and additional intervention sessions to help narrow the gap for children
identified through Dec 15 learning reviews. Impact was evidenced in
both groups (benefiting disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged). There
was a 9% increase in the number of children working at age related
according to reading assessments from Dec 15 to July 16 and a 3%
increase in writing.