The pupil premium grant provides schools with additional funding to improve the progress and attainment of disadvantaged pupils. All schools receive extra funding based on the number of children who have been registered for Free School Meals at any point in the last 6 years - which, for us at Bedwell, is a large group (around 36% of children on roll). As a result, this year we will receive a total of £137,640 (this is a predicted figure and the total may vary slightly due to fluctuations in pupil numbers).

We have used guidance from a charity called the Educational Endowment Foundation to help us to use this funding in the most effective way possible. Their report (which you can check out here) recommends a tiered approach to Pupil Premium spending: 

• Teaching should be the top priority, including professional development, training and support for early career teachers and recruitment and retention. 
• Targeted support for pupils working below Age Related Expectations 
• Providing non-academic support, including improving attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support. 

Following this approach, we have developed a 3-year Pupil Premium Strategy. You can read our complete Pupil Premium Strategy Statement here.

Teaching priorities

• Developing the teaching of writing: developing the use of HfL Essentials for Writing scheme to enhance writing curriculum; building teacher and TA understanding of progression in grammar and correct sentence formation; training for TAs on grammar fundamentals; modelling and demonstrating clear sentence construction through oral rehearsal; explicit teaching of editing skills, ensuring children are given time to edit & redraft; developing provision of Early writing opportunities in EYFS
• Enhancing phonics teaching: phonics leader running a programme of monitoring, supporting and team-teaching with all staff delivering Read Write Inc;  additional staffing to provide for small-group teaching; phonics assessment of children from Nursery – Y3 every 6 weeks; purchase of RWInc resources; training for all new staff 
• Building a ‘Reading for Pleasure’ culture: Encouraging adults and children to talk positively about books by sharing reviews, building knowledge of new books and current authors, using post-it recommendations etc; keeping reading high-profile through themed weeks, visits to local library, linking books to assembly themes; auditing class libraries and updating stock, developing diversity of authors, characters and themes that matches that of our school community
• Developing the teaching of maths: ensuring an appropriate level of challenge is provided for children in all groups, building on HfL Essentials scheme, in order to accelerate progress; planning support for teachers of lower attaining groups in KS2; building mathematical fluency through daily use of HfL fluency slides and associated resources; developing maths teaching, language development and learning environments in EYFS
• In school experiences and events to enhance cultural capital: themed days in each year group, linked to humanities topics; visiting theatre in education groups;  speakers / presenters / workshops for Reading Week and Science Week; release time for subject leaders and class teachers
• Improving provision for children with SEND: Termly training for all staff, looking at effective strategies to support key areas of need; Regular meetings between SENDCo, teachers and TA teams, discussing current practice, what is / isn’t working and suggesting new strategies and sources for external support; CPD on effective use of Assess-Plan-Do-Review (APDR) cycle, focussing on use of in-class support / adaptations

Targetted support

• Phonics catch-up: additional one-to-one phonics sessions for those who are not on track to pass Y1 phonics screening 
• Small-group tutoring in Y6: in-school Booster sessions in maths, with children working in groups of 6-8; after-school reading sessions for targettted groups of children, delivered by a teacher the children in that group known well  
• Speech & language support: personalised intervention programmes delivered by specialist Speech & Language TA; use of WellComm toolkit to provide targeted support to children in EYFS; delivering Nuffield Early Language Intervention in EYFS
• Spelling support: use end-of-year assessments in Years 3-5 to identify target groups within each cohort for whom Write Words might be an effective intervention; deliver sessions to targetted children at least 3x per week; writing lead to regularly monitor provision and progress