Pupil Premium Strategy

At Beacon Rise Primary School we believe all children deserve the very best education no matter what their background.  We continuously monitor the progress of all our pupils to ensure that they are achieving their full potential.  For the last four years the achievement of our free school meal pupils has been above the national average.

In 2011 the government introduced some funding for schools called Pupil Premium in order to support the progress of vulnerable groups.  The funding is paid directly into the school and the amount received is based on the number of pupils who receive free school meals, children in care and children of parents in the armed forces.

We are free to spend this funding as we see fit.  The Principal spends this money in a variety of ways to raise pupils learning to ensure the benefit of each child although Ofsted recommend successful approaches may include:

  • well-targeted support to improve attendance, behaviour or links with families where these were barriers to a pupil’s learning
  • ensuring support staff (particularly teaching assistants) are highly trained and understand their role in helping pupils to achieve
  • allocated their best teachers to teach intervention groups to improve mathematics and English
  • involving governors in the decision making and evaluation process.

Barriers to learning include:

  • poor attendance and increased number of broken weeks
  • lack of parental engagement and support for home learning
  • poor communication and language skills
  • low attainment in English and Maths
  • lack of funding for school trips and residential trips
  • ensuring pupils have regular meals and a balanced diet.

Our Pupil Premium was and is being spent on:

  • Professional development of all teaching staff to securing high quality teaching in every lesson
  • Additional teaching assistant hours to provide targeted intervention
  • Additional teaching assistant hours to support the emotional well being of pupils through nurture intervention and/or 1:1 mentoring
  • Continued professional development of our Vulnerable Pupil Team
  • 1:1 mentoring.

This has raised pupil achievements through:

  • Improved attainment and progress for those pupils who received reading, writing and mathematics intervention
  • Excellent end of EYFS, KS1 and KS2 results
  • Improved behaviour and engagement in lessons
  • Additional support and advice given to individual families as necessary
  • Improved attendance.

Our pupil premium strategy is reviewed annually.