Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2021-22
School overview
| Metric | Data |
| School name | Writtle Infant School |
| Pupils in school | 175 |
| Proportion of disadvantaged pupils | 11% (48% on the SEND register) |
| Pupil premium allocation this academic year | £33,407 |
| Academic year or years covered by statement | 2021-2023 |
| Publish date | December 2021 |
| Review date | December 2022 |
| Statement authorised by | Ralph Bray |
| Pupil premium lead | Helen Castell - Headteacher |
| Governor lead | Ralph Bray |
Funding overview
| Detail | Amount |
| Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year | £30,652 |
| Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year | £2,755 |
| Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable) | £0 |
| Total budget for this academic year | £33,407 |
Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan
Statement of intent
At Writtle Infant School we believe in an excellent education and the highest expectation for all, regardless of background or barriers to learning. We believe that Pupil Premium should support educational attainment and progress, but it also needs to be used to raise expectations and help children to be ready to learn. We believe that high-quality teaching and learning should be prioritised over intervention and this is ultimately the responsibility of the class teacher. Positive relationships with pupils and families are at the core of our provision. We also understand that some disadvantaged children may not be in receipt of Pupil Premium, yet their barriers to success need to be addressed. We reserve the right to allocate Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.
Intervention needs are based on a range of evidence including assessment, pupil and family voice, observations and an understanding of the challenges of each individual family. Our approach to Pupil Premium reflects our school values, in particular inclusivity, ensuring that we take steps to ensure children in receipt of PP can access all opportunities in school and the skills and knowledge to be learning independently. We use the EEF Pupil Premium Guide to ensure a balance of teaching, academic support and wider strategies.
Pupil Premium intervention in our school focuses on the individual need of each disadvantaged pupil and children are not seen as an homogenous group. Some of our goals may not be measured by judging National Curriculum achievements, government data and facts and figures. The success of this strategy is not just about the number of children who meet the expected standard, it is equally important to demonstrate that we have supported children to be successful individuals with the same potential and opportunities open to them as all pupils within this school.
We acknowledge that research from the National Governors’ Association shows that family life, low attendance and social or emotional barriers to engagement emerged as some of the common barriers to educational achievements. We strive to find a balance between tackling those barriers, for example with counselling, family support and nurture groups/Forest schools and support in the academic subjects. We find that speech and language and reading difficulties are also key barriers to learning. We have an Elklan-trained SENCO and other members of staff are also appropriately trained.
Provision will be bespoke per child based on their ‘fluid’ needs and these can vary at any given time.
- All members of staff at Writtle Infant School accept responsibility for meeting the pastoral, social and academic needs within the school environment of all pupils and are committed to ‘Narrowing the Gap’ for vulnerable pupils.
- Training for all staff is a priority, for example all staff members are trained in Trauma Perceptive Practice and we understand that good relationships underpin everything we do.
- We acknowledge that in our school we have to take into account the achievements across the board for Pupil Premium children. In our school currently 48% of our premium children are also children with SEND, therefore achievements towards their own personal targets and how Pupil Premium supports these targets must be acknowledged.
- We work together to create an overall package of support aimed to tackle the range of barriers including; attendance, behaviour, external factors, professional development focussing on improving outcomes for eligible pupils, improving the quality of teaching and learning, language acquisition, parental engagement, opportunities for first-hand experiences and development of literacy and numeracy skills.
- The Disadvantaged governor and the Headteacher have a clear overview of how funding is allocated and the difference it is making to the outcomes of pupils termly which is shared with the whole governing body.
- We ensure that all teaching and support staff know which pupils are eligible for Pupil Premium so they can take responsibility for accelerating progress and accountability is shared across the school.
- The Governing Body is ambitious for pupils and closely monitors the school’s effectiveness in closing the gap between different groups of pupils. They receive a termly anonymised report on each child in receipt of PP.
Additional provision that may be implemented to achieve these objectives:
The range of additional provision that may be provided at Writtle Infant school include:
- Additional teaching and learning opportunities provided through trained LSAs or external agencies
- More able disadvantaged children will be given opportunities that extend their life experience and accelerate their progress within the curriculum for example by recognising a talent and paying for a club
- Additional support for transition from infant to junior school
- Additional PE provision focussing on the development of social skills
- Emotional well-being support including staff training
- Staff Training to suit needs identified in particular speech and language
- This list is not exhaustive and will change according to the needs and support our identified disadvantaged pupils require.
Challenges
This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.
| Challenge number | Detail of challenge |
| 1 | Social and emotional needs for example ability to self-regulate behaviour. Teacher referrals have increased by 40% to members of the SLT since September |
| 2 | Weak Language and Communication skills. 50% of our disadvantaged pupils have extra support for Speech and Language |
| 3 | Low attainment in core subjects - Our assessments and observations indicate that the education and wellbeing of many of our disadvantaged pupils have been impacted by partial school closures to a greater extent than for other pupils despite the vast majority of our disadvantaged children attending regularly. This has resulted in significant knowledge gaps leading to pupils falling further behind age-related expectations, especially in reading, writing and phonics. |
| 4 | Low attainment on entry to the Early Years Foundation Stage in all prime areas. This is the case with 86% of our disadvantaged children in EYFS |
| 5 | Attendance and lack of parental engagement. Disadvantaged children's attendance is around 4% lower than other children and a small number of families need a lot of school time to support their attendance. |
Intended outcomes
| Measure | Success criteria |
| To accelerate progress for disadvantaged pupils from their individual starting points and in relation to national data.
We have a LSA trained in Forest Schools and all children in receipt of Pupil Premium have benefited from this support. In addition this provides time for one to one/small group intervention weekly in years one and two |
Accurate baseline completed, with effective moderation.
Provision mapping effectively identifies strategies. Termly pupil progress meetings to evaluate provision and identify clear next steps. This will include monitoring of attendance, parental engagement, academic progress and attainment, learning and social behaviours, progress towards individualised outcomes. |
| Extra support for those pupils experiencing learning, behaviour or emotional difficulties. This can include nurture groups, yoga,SEMH group and counselling. All disadvantaged children are offered a funded club and barriers removed to attending enrichment such as paying for school trips | Early identification of children displaying emotional distress and/or difficulties socially.
These children are monitored for changes in their behaviour by staff. Various levels of support are implemented as appropriate and may include: Discussion with SENCo, LSA based intervention, small group social skills focus, access to external agencies. We are a Trauma Perceptive School and we need to ensure we have regular training updates for all staff. Providing opportunities for disadvantaged children to develop their talents and feel valued |
| Speech and language support implemented by our SENCO and staff trained for the needs in their class | Speech and Language support is offered as soon as the children who need it enter our school. Our ELKLAN trained SENCO writes individualised plans for children who need this support. |
| Projected spending | £33,407 |
Activity in this academic year
This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) this academic year to address the challenges listed above.
Teaching (for example, CPD, recruitment and retention)
Budgeted cost: £28,452
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| Target disadvantaged pupils using in house data and provide catch up using our teaching team to close gaps in reading, phonetic understanding writing and maths | Our data indicates that COVID-related disruption has had a considerable impact on outcomes for disadvantaged children.
Targeted phonics interventions have been shown to be more effective when delivered as regular sessions over a period up to 12 weeks: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonic |
2,3,4,5 |
| We have a LSA trained in Forest Schools and all children in receipt of Pupil Premium have benefited from this support. In addition this provides time for one to one/small group intervention weekly in years one and two. | Our data indicates that COVID-related disruption has had a considerable impact on outcomes for disadvantaged children, especially in 2021. | 2,3,4,5 |
| Step On (Staff CPD)
Step On covers interventions aimed at reducing a variety of behaviours, from low-level disruption to aggression, violence, bullying, substance abuse and general anti-social activities. |
Behaviour interventions seek to improve attainment by reducing challenging behaviour and through developing a positive school ethos which aims to support greater engagement in learning. | 1,2 |
Targeted academic support (for example, tutoring, one-to-one support structured interventions)
Budgeted cost: £2755
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| One to one and small group tutoring for identified disadvantaged children in phonics, writing and reading | Tuition targeted at specific needs and knowledge gaps can be an effective method to support low attaining pupils or those falling behind, both one-to-one:
And in small groups: Phonics approaches have a strong evidence base indicating a positive impact on pupils, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds. Targeted phonics interventions have been shown to be more effective when delivered as regular sessions over a period up to 12 weeks: https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/phonics |
2,3,4 |
Wider strategies (for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)
Budgeted cost: £2200
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
| To support social and emotional needs particularly following the school lockdown | Interventions which target social and emotional needs seek to improve pupils’ interaction with others and self-management of emotions, rather than focusing directly on the academic or cognitive elements of learning. Three broad categories of SEL interventions can be identified:
|
1, 5 |
| To support the speech and language needs which have increased during lockdown for some of our children in receipt of Pupil Premium | Weak Language and Communication skills.
Higher than average numbers of disadvantaged children access SALT. 50% of our disadvantaged pupils have extra support for Speech and Language |
3 |
| To improve attendance of disadvantaged pupils and ensure they are in line with national expectations | Attendance and Punctuality issues. Attendance figures are lower for children in receipt of PP than other children by around 4% using latest figures.
The DfE guidance has been informed by engagement with schools that have significantly reduced levels of absence and persistent absence. |
5 |
Total budgeted cost: £35,765
Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year.
Pupil premium strategy outcomes
This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2020 to 2021 academic year.
Our assessments and observations indicated that pupil behaviour, wellbeing and mental health were impacted last year, primarily due to COVID-19-related issues. The impact was particularly acute for disadvantaged pupils. We used pupil premium funding to provide wellbeing support for all pupils, and targeted interventions where required. We are building on that approach with the activities detailed in this plan.
Speech and language support implemented by our SENCO and staff trained for the needs in their class. Most children in receipt of PP made good progress and engaged well during the lockdown but still are behind their peers when compared to national expectations.
71% achieved expected in phonics at the end of Year Two and those that did not showed good improvement in their scores. 57% (4 out of 7) children achieved GLD on teacher assessment.
Year Two teacher assessment 50% (4 out of 8 children) achieved expected in maths and reading and 38% (3 out of 8 children) achieved expected in maths. 50% of our disadvantaged children in Year Two were children with SEND and a personalised programme and their Personal Centred Plans show good progress in their individual targets.
Externally provided programmes
Please include the names of any non-DfE programmes that you purchased in the previous academic year. This will help the Department for Education identify which ones are popular in England.
| Programme | Provider |
| None |
Further information
Demography and school context
We are a smaller than average school equating with between 20% and 40% of schools nationally
- There was a 98.3% stability rate
- 51.9% of the school population were boys and 48.1% were girls
- Our deprivation indicator is 0.15 compared to a national figure of 0.21
- Our proportion of children with EAL is 9% compared to a national figure of 21.2%
- Our Pupil Premium is 12% of the school compared to 23% nationally