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Pupil Premium Grant

Pupil Premium was introduced in 2011 and is an allocation of additional funding provided to schools to support specific groups of children who are vulnerable to possible underachievement, such as children in receipt of free school meals and Looked After Children. 

All schools are required to report on the amount of funding received and how this is being used, including the impact.  Since April 2020, funding has been received from the Education and Skills Funding Agency, rather than each Local Authority. 

Our aim is not to disadvantage any Pupil Premium student and identify, within our core budget, financial resource, that will enrich their time with us and promote their academic, social and emotional well-being. We enhance our Pupil Premium allocation accordingly within our Pupil Premium Spending which is also approved by The Governing Body. At Isebrook School we have set high expectations that each individual will thrive and make progress; we intend to: 

  • Use our Pupil Premium Funding to support our vision and values to enable our students to achieve to the best of their ability from their individual starting points to ensure they are ready for the next stage on their educational journey.   
  • We ensure Pupil Premium students are well cared for, are not identifiable and that systems are in place to support their pastoral needs. 
  • We often use Pupil Premium monies to fund projects in school which are designed to diminish the difference between those pupils eligible for the payments and those who are not. This is not exhaustive and PP will be used flexibly to meet the needs of individual children and young people. 

Accountability 

  • The Headteacher and the Senior Leadership Team will regularly and rigorously monitor, evaluate and review the strategies we have put into place of Pupil Premium. 

Executive Summary

We recognise that there are many barriers for our students in accessing the curriculum and pride ourselves on using the Pupil Premium Grant in an innovative way to support our students and families.  Our strap line ‘where the impossible becomes possible’ underpins our ethos in all that we do in terms of providing for our students and creating as many opportunities as possible to help remove barriers to learning.

Overview of the pupil premium strategy so far – "What’s worked well?" – "...even better if..." – "What didn’t work?"

Isebrook School have developed an outstanding Pastoral Provision to support the emotional wellbeing of our students; something we believe is essential in enabling students to be ready to learn. We are committed to improving the physical, social and emotional opportunities of all learners in order to maximise achievement and promote good outcomes for all.

We encourage and promote high aspirations and ambitions for all our students. We are passionate in our belief that all students should be given the opportunity to achieve. Through high quality provision, we aim to encourage and extend pupils’ passion and thirst for knowledge, resulting in them realising their full potential. We are committed to ensuring that Pupil Premium Funding is spent to maximum effect. In identifying the best way to spend the Pupil Premium Grant, three key areas are being targeted: Attainment, Wellbeing and Enrichment. All three of these areas are important in ensuring that every pupil has a breadth of experience and opportunity.

According to ‘A practical guide to Pupil Premium’ [2014], commissioned by the National Education Trust, the best schools recognise that what is good for pupils in receipt of the PPG is good for all pupils. They have adopted whole school strategies, based on the latest research findings from the Sutton Trust, identifying feedback, meta-cognition and collaborative learning as the most effective way of improving outcomes for all pupils. They also recognise that the most important ingredient in the delivery of any approach is the person delivering it. As such, the best schools use funding to focus on the professional development of teachers and support staff. We have learned from what the best schools are doing, as well as research findings, and this has informed the spending of the grant.

Core approaches that will now be implemented and how these will contribute to closing gaps

The additional support we provide to address emotional & social barriers to learning is at the heart of what we offer.  A young person with special needs will already have a number of cognitive & emotional barriers to learning. Add into this; the complex & chaotic home environment that many of our students experience it is ESSENTIAL that we offer the things we do to meet basic needs [Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs] as well as using therapies and alternative curriculums to inspire, motivate and support our students.

Overall aim of the plan

To ensure that the Pupil Premium Grant is targeted at the students it is intended for and significantly improve the achievement and life chances of disadvantaged students attending Isebrook, by narrowing the gap in achievement between them and their peers. This will be achieved by:

  • Providing educational support which raises the achievement of these students so that it is in line with their peers and closer to national expectations.
  • Providing emotional and social support where appropriate.
  • Addressing any inequalities in opportunity faced by these students.

Details of the main barriers to educational achievement that the disadvantaged children and young people face – internal and external.

At Isebrook, the young people’s main barriers to learning fall under the categories below

Lack of motivation to learn

A lack of motivation to learn is a major barrier to learning for some of our students: without the desire to achieve students would typically go through the motions of learning and not retain knowledge and understanding and skills development.

Social and cultural barriers

There are some students at Isebrook who find interaction with their peers and adults extremely challenging and this can have significant impact on their rate of progress if not addressed.

Emotional wellbeing

Some of our students who are identified with emotional and wellbeing difficulties lack confidence and are afraid of taking educated guesses for example: their emotional wellbeing majorly impacts on their ability to achieve well. There are several identified emotional factors which are noted as barriers to learning for our students, including fear of embarrassment, doubt and inadequacy and general negative emotions about self.

Personal SEND

On an individual level, all our students have SEND in one category or another, as identified in the Code of Practice: those who are more disadvantaged find learning even more challenging and their complex personal barriers can limit their progress and attainment if provision is not diverse and personalised.  Other factors such as transport, location and access to appropriate resources can also present as blockers to learning for some of our students.

Date of the next Pupil Premium Strategy Review: July 2023