Pupil Premium & Y7 Catch-up Funding

What is Pupil Premium?

The government believes that the pupil premium, which is provided in addition to main funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between disadvantaged and their peers by ensuring that funding reaches the pupils who need it most and has provided Pupil Premium funding since April 2011. The government has allocated schools a sum of money which is called the ‘Pupil Premium’. This is to ensure that all pupils, from Reception through to Year 11, are given the same opportunities to achieve and so that no pupil is disadvantaged due to economic or social circumstances. The amount of the grant for pupils in secondary education is £935 per pupil and £300 for students who have a parent working in the armed forces, whilst the premium for looked after children and those adopted from care is £1900.

The three identified groups entitled to the Pupil Premium are:

1. Students who are currently, or who have been entitled to free school meals at any point over the past 6 years (ever 6)
2. Children in local authority care or adopted from local authority care 
3. Students who have at least one parent working for the Armed Services or have had at some point in the past 4 years (ever 4)

Our approach to Pupil Premium at Graham School

1. Offer and implement a range of strategies – the Pupil Premium students are a diverse group of different ages, backgrounds, abilities and needs.  The essential point is to ensure that disadvantage does not hinder potential.
2. Improved outcomes for students through the provision of additional support and intervention in key subjects
3. Secure positive outcomes for young people.
4. Raise achievement by improving attendance.
5. To ensure this happens we will monitor, evaluate and offer interventions. 
6. To achieve this we have taken guidance from the Ofsted reports ‘The Pupil Premium’, “Evaluation of Pupil Premium” “Pupil Premium: raising achievement of disadvantaged pupils” Research Report, the relevant Sutton Trust reports and recommendations in the Education Endowment Foundation “Teaching and Learning Tool Kit”

You can read our Pupil Premium Strategy 2020 – 2022

The Funding

For the Academic year of 2020-21 Graham School has 387 students eligible for the Pupil Premium grant, that’s approximately 40% of the student body. The total amount of funding received from the Government for Pupil Premium spending is £356,155 in total. For a summary breakdown and overview of the spending please see the Strategy Statement above.

Year 7 Catch-up Funding

Year 7 catch‐up funding provides approximately £29,000 to help support students who are significantly below average in literacy and numeracy on entry to school from KS2.

Graham School uses the £29,000 ‘Catch Up’ money along with the Pupil Premium funding to create KS3 Enrichment groups. These are small class groups who have focused literacy and numeracy support in order to more easily access the curriculum and to make good progress. The gains made by students in previous years has been positive and therefore we continue to invest the funding in this area of need. Please see the Pupil Premium document for further information.