The Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) is additional funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils (and to support children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces) in schools in England. Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.
Research has found that disadvantaged pupils have been worst affected by the impact of COVID-19. It is therefore more important than ever for school strategies to focus on support for disadvantaged pupils who may have lost significant learning as a result of the pandemic.
For 2021-22, schools are expected to continue to use the pupil premium to improve attainment of disadvantaged pupils and to also use the Recovery Premium Grant (RPG) to report on how they are being used:
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement and Impact 2023-24
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement and Impact 2022-23
Funding allocations for 2023-24
- Pupil Premium: £1455 for each eligible primary aged pupil.
- £2530 for each Looked After child.
- Recovery Premium: £145 for each eligible primary aged pupil.
Key principles for using the PPG and RPG at St Mary’s Catholic Primary Academy
- St Mary’s has an academy-wide commitment to raise achievement for pupils who are eligible for Pupil Premium and knows these pupils must make faster progress than non-eligible pupils and is determined to achieve this.
- St Mary’s never confuses eligible pupils with low ability and strives to bring out the best in this group of pupils and support them to achieve the highest levels.
- St Mary’s creates an overall package of support aimed to tackle the range of barriers including; attendance, behaviour, external factors, professional development focusing on improving outcomes for eligible pupils, always improving the quality of teaching and learning, opportunities for first-hand experiences and development of literacy and numeracy skills.
- St Mary’s directs resources for first quality teaching and interventions to accelerate progress of eligible pupils and close the attainment gap compared to their peers.
- St Mary’s uses robust diagnostic assessment to carefully track the impact of targeted spending (interventions, projects or pedagogy) on attainment and progress of eligible pupils.
- The Pupil Premium Leader and the rest of the Senior Leadership Team have a clear overview of how funding is allocated and the difference it is making to the outcomes of pupils termly.
- St Mary’s ensures class teachers, phase leaders, curriculum leaders, teaching assistants and pastoral support know which pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium so they can take responsibility for accelerating progress, and accountability is shared across the academy, through performance management.
- The Local Governing Body is ambitious for pupils and closely monitors the academy’s effectiveness in closing the gap between different groups of pupils each term.
‘Our tiered approach to Pupil Premium and Recovery Premium spending’
Our tiered approach, as shown in the diagram below, has been adopted on the basis of strong external evidence from the EEF (Education Endowment Foundation), the DfE (Department for Education) and other research platforms.
