Pupil Premium

1. Introduction

The Pupil Premium is additional funding provided by the Department for Education to enhance the education of social-economically disadvantaged pupils (namely those pupils entitled, or previously entitled, to free school meals (FSM), Looked After Children (LAC) or adopted from care).

Schools are free to decide on how best to allocate the funds for programmes to support its disadvantaged pupils.

In September 2021, the percentage of pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium is 69% currently (632 eligible pupils).

The amount of Pupil Premium funds allocated to Platanos College for 2020-2021 was £614,503.

The amount allocated for the 2021-2022 academic year (up until April 2022) is so far at £468,785 (please note that this is due to funds being allocated according to financial year – we therefore do not yet know the allocation beyond April 2022).

2. Our Strategy

Click here for our Pupil Premium Strategy Statement, which is outlined using the DfE’s template.

In addition, a summary of the statement is provided in the below sections.

2.1  Identifying the challenges to learning

As part of our Pupil Premium strategy to improve our pupils’ outcomes, we have identified the potential barriers to educational achievement for disadvantaged pupils. These are outlined via the link below.

• Challenges to learning information – click here (pdf).

2.2  Budget plan to address the identified challenges to learning

Please see below for information on the planned support and allocation of funds.

• Click here for the 2021-2022 budget plan (pdf). This is a working document and may be updated/refined during the course of the academic year.

2.3  A summary of the interventions/provision and the reasons for our approach

The Pupil Premium provision is planned in an integrated and targeted manner for this academic year to ensure that those pupils entitled to the Pupil Premium receive additional support to address the identified barriers.

Our approach is a multifaceted, layered approach in order to provide bespoke support to pupils to overcome barriers.  The support provided is based on needs analysis, local and individual or specific needs, and drawn from in-house expertise, or where found to be effective in other settings, or from wider sources such as the Sutton Trust-EEF Toolkit.  This flexible, dynamic approach is required to reflect the complex needs of pupils, the changing social factors and trends, and allows us to react accordingly to provide a wholesome level of support.

In Key Stage 3, the additional programmes of support include the following:

• Those pupils with low reading ages receive additional support in small groups and where appropriate one-to-one support.  The programmes are managed internally by the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO).  We use a specialist external company to deliver parts of the programme.  Each aspect of the programme is monitored and evaluated.
• Identified pupils also benefit from a supported curriculum / nurture group approach in Key Stage 3, which is a primary-like approach aimed at pupils who are taught by one teacher for the majority of the curriculum.  This concentrates on basic skills to enable ‘catch-up’ to take place.
• Small group interventions on personal development for pupils to address emotional well-being and to support those at the risk of exclusion.
• Learning Mentors are employed to support a wide range of challenging needs.
• There are also additional classes for individual support, such as booster classes and academic excellence classes.
• Homework Club.
• Art and photography.
• Educational visits.
• Pastoral, wellbeing, personal development and counselling.

In Key Stage 4, the support programmes include the following:

• Targeted interventions for those with the greatest need in Years 10 and 11, including revision classes, catch-up classes, one-to-one programmes of study, Saturday school.
• Careers workshops and advice.
• Learning Mentors
• Educational visits.
• Off-site personalised learning courses.
• Behaviour support.
• Pastoral, wellbeing, personal development and counselling.

3. How we will measure the effect of the Pupil Premium

We will monitor the effect of the pupil premium through a range of different measures where applicable. This will include:

• Overall academic progress made by disadvantaged pupils in comparison to ‘other’ pupils.
• Level of engagement in educational activities, learning, and other wider extracurricular activities.
• Wider (extracurricular) achievements.
• Behaviour and personal skills development.
• Cognitive or mental health and wellbeing.
• Attendance/punctuality.

The above will be evaluated through a number of ways. This will include:

• Tracking and analysis of pupil data and outcomes.
• Case studies.
• Feedback evaluation.

4. The impact

The support programmes for our disadvantaged pupils have resulted in a positive impact.

• Click here for the funds spent and summary outcomes for 2020-2021.
• In addition, before the Covid-19 pandemic, the percentage of disadvantaged pupils achieving the EBacc at Grade 4+ and 5+ were above the non-disadvantaged pupils nationally (when exams took place before the pandemic).
• 89% of the school’s disadvantaged pupils were entered for the EBacc subjects – approximately double the percentage of pupils nationally (when exams took place before the pandemic).
• The percentage of sessions missed due to overall absence and the percentage of persistent absentees decreased.
• Our Key Stage 3 assessment indicates that disadvantaged pupils make comparative progress in comparison to their ‘other’ peers from their individual starting points.
• The school was previously awarded the SSAT Educational Outcomes award for the achievement of its pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium in comparison to national performance.
• We have also previously been recognised by the Sutton Trust as a top-performing school for pupils eligible for FSM.

Date of next review of the strategy: 30 July 2022

Note: If parents/carers are not sure whether their child can have free school meals, please contact the school and we will be able to assist you in confidence.