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Pupil Premium and Sports Premium

Pupil Premium 

 

Introduction to pupil premium 

The pupil premium grant is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England. It provides schools with extra resources to help them meet various challenges with the intention of 

• Improving academic outcomes for disadvantaged pupils of all abilities.
• Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.

Within Merryfields, the Senior Leadership Team decide how to best use the Pupil Premium Funding to improve the academic attainment for ‘disadvantaged’ pupils. When making decisions on how to spend the grant, we consider evidence from previous years as well as keeping abreast of recent research, allowing it to impact as many pupils as possible; this includes whole school strategies and individual or class based interventions. 

To measure the effectiveness of our approach, we assess the performance of our Pupil Premium pupils, throughout the year. 

 

Reporting and Accountability

Merryfields Leaders are held accountable for the effectiveness of our Pupil Premium by our Local Academy Board (LAB), during committee meetings and full LAB meetings.  We also publish our strategy on this page along with last years report. 

 

Long Term Strategy 

From September 2019, government proposals request that schools move away from full annual reviews and consider a multi year strategy. This will help leaders to 

• Take a longer view of the support the grant will provide
• Align our plan with the wider school improvement strategy. 

 

Strategy 

In June 2019, the Education Endowment Foundation published their ‘Guide to Pupil Premium,’ which recommends schools take a tiered approach to pupil premium strategy. High Quality Teaching should be a top priority, including professional development, training and support for early career teachers and recruitment and retention.

Targeted support for struggling pupils should also be a key component, as well as strategies that relate to non academic factors including improving attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support. 

The Education Endowment Foundation also recommends that school leaders take on ‘Evidence informed’ decisions, which is why contained within our reports, we include references to research into our interventions, to support our spending judgements. 

The school Implementation process aims to follow a four step cycle – explore, prepare, deliver, sustain. 

 

Tiered approach 

1 – High Quality Teaching. Spending on improving teaching may include professional development, training and support for early career teachers. Ensuring an effective teacher is in front of every class is essential. 

 

2-Targeted academic support– evidence shows the positive impact of targeted support. One to one or small group work, is a key component of the Pupil Premium Strategy. 

 

3- Wider strategies. These relate to the non academic success of the school, like OT support and providing nurture therapy. 

 

Pupil Premium 

 

Sports Premium

Please click here to read our Sports Premium report 2020.21

Please click here to read our Sports Premium report 2021.22