Pupil premium strategy statement

This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium for the 2024 to 2027 academic years) funding to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged pupils.

It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year and the effect that last year’s spending of pupil premium had within our school.

School overview

Detail

Data

School name

Brookside Primary

Number of pupils in school

190 (33 EYFS)

Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible pupils

43.5% 

Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers (3 year plans are recommended)

2024- 2027

Date this statement was published

December 2024

Date on which it will be reviewed

November 2027

Statement authorised by

Mr D Orme (HT)

Pupil premium lead

Ms J Smith (DHT)

Governor / Trustee lead

Mr Paul Donovan

Funding overview

Detail

Amount

Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year

£115000

Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year

£0

Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable)

£0

Total budget for this academic year

If your school is an academy in a trust that pools this funding, state the amount available to your school this academic year

£115000

Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan

Statement of intent

At Brookside Primary School, we strive for achievement for all our pupils. Our pastoral care and rigorous monitoring and tracking of all pupils helps us to identify any pupils who are at risk of not making sufficient progress and this has helped us to plan and implement good intervention strategies.

With smaller numbers of pupil premium eligible pupils, value for money is central to sustained improvements in both well-being and academic achievement. As a high achieving school set within the context of a deprivation indicator that is below the national, there is the potential challenge that less advantaged pupils do not have the same starting point, experiences or support as their peers.

Our belief is that opportunities in a wide range of experiences such as trips out and art/craft lessons plus sporting opportunities are integral to opportunity and entitlement. This includes some new and discrete activities and interventions that we have always employed that are known to support pupil progress and attainment. Some have cost implications and others have required time within staff learning sessions, INSET and staff time to research theory and current pedagogical developments in education.

 

Challenges

This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.

Challenge number

Detail of challenge

1

Assessments, observations, and discussions with pupils suggest disadvantaged pupils generally have greater difficulties in all subjects than their peers. This negatively impacts their development as readers, writers and mathematicians. 44.1% of pupils do not meet age-related expectations in Literacy and Maths this will impact on all other non-core subjects.

Children enter EYFS well below age related expectations in Language and Communication. 100%+ of disadvantaged pupils are working below in all areas on entry into Nursery.  

2

Our assessments, observations and discussions with pupils and families have identified social and emotional issues for many pupils and a lack of enrichment opportunities during school. These challenges particularly affect disadvantaged pupils, including their attainment. Enrichment Club to be provided and other clubs after school, for example Reading clubs and Sports clubs. There has been an increase in requests for support from teachers, parents, and Social Services. The current percentage for whole school persistent absence (less than 90% attendance) is 24.4%. Currently, 35 children (25 of whom are disadvantaged) are receiving support for social and emotional needs.

3

Our attendance data over the last year indicates that attendance among disadvantaged pupils is 89% 2023/24 with National 92.4% 2022/23.

Our assessments and observations indicate that absenteeism is negatively impacting disadvantaged pupils’ attainment.

Intended outcomes

This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.

Intended outcome

Success criteria

To improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils across the whole curriculum with a focus on the core curriculum in the first instance.

Continue to close the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged pupils to meet the expected standard in R/W/M by the end of KS2.

To achieve and sustain improved wellbeing for all pupils in our school, particularly our disadvantaged pupils.

Sustained high levels of wellbeing demonstrated by:

  • qualitative data from student voice, student and parent surveys and teacher observations
  • an increase in participation in enrichment activities, particularly among disadvantaged pupils   

To achieve and sustain improved attendance for all pupils, particularly our disadvantaged pupils.

  • Attendance to be at least in line with National for all pupils.
  • To narrow the attendance gap between disadvantaged and none disadvantaged pupils.

 

 

Activity in this academic year

This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) this academic year to address the challenges listed above.

Teaching (for example, CPD, recruitment and retention)

Budgeted cost: £58,522  (1)

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Training for staff on going CPD to improve quality of teaching and outcomes for pupils.

Spending on developing high quality teaching may include investment in professional development training and support.

Subject coordinator time to identify disadvantaged pupils’ needs within their subject.

 Education Endowment Foundation | EEF

1

Purchase of a DfE validated Systematic Synthetic Phonics programme to secure stronger phonics teaching for all pupils.

Phonics approaches have a strong evidence base that indicates a positive impact on the accuracy of word reading (though not necessarily comprehension), particularly for disadvantaged pupils:

Phonics | Toolkit Strand | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF

Ruth Miskin RWI scheme

1

Enable pupils to gain cultural and enrichment experiences to build on knowledge and skills.

Panto

Father Christmas

Trips (half termly), minibus use, residentials…

Subscriptions

French scheme

Community events dance & sports festivals

2

Improve the quality of social and emotional (SEL) learning.

 

SEL approaches will be embedded into routine educational practices and supported by professional development and training for staff.

There is extensive evidence associating childhood social and emotional skills with improved outcomes at school and in later life (e.g., improved academic performance, attitudes, behaviour and relationships with peers):

EEF_Social_and_Emotional_Learning.pdf(educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

Secrets of Success scheme

Kapow PSHE schemes

First News

MyMaths

WhitRose Maths

Homework

Assessment tools

Assemblies

Pastoral manager support

ELSA

2

 

 

 

Targeted academic support (for example, tutoring, one-to-one support structured interventions)

Budgeted cost: £21,578   (2)

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Small group support

Interventions

1:1 support

Evidence consistently shows the positive impact that targeted academic support can have, including those who are not making academic progress.

Education Endowment Foundation | EEF

 

1

Additional phonics sessions targeted disadvantaged pupils who require further phonics support (lowest 20%). This will be delivered in collaboration with our local English hub. 

Phonics approaches have a strong evidence base indicating a positive impact on pupils, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds. Targeted phonics interventions have been shown to be more effective when delivered as regular sessions over a period up to 12 weeks:

Phonics | Toolkit Strand | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF

Ruth Miskin RWI

1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wider strategies (for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)

Budgeted cost: £34,840   (3)

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Staff training in behaviour management and anti-bullying approaches with the aim of developing our school ethos and improving behaviour across school.

Both targeted interventions and universal approaches can have positive overall effects:

Behaviour interventions | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

2

Embedding principles of good practice set out in the DfE’s Improving School Attendance advice.

This will involve training and releasing time for staff to develop and implement new procedures and appointing attendance/support officers to improve attendance.

The DfE guidance has been informed by engagement with schools that have significantly reduced levels of absence and persistent absence.

3

Contingency fund for acute issues.

 

Based on our experiences and those of similar schools to ours, we have identified a need to set a small amount of funding aside to respond quickly to needs that have not yet been identified.

 

All

 

Total budgeted cost: £114,940

Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year

Pupil premium strategy outcomes

This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2021/22 to 2023/24 academic years.  

Due to improving how families apply for PP we have increased from 30% PP 2022/23 to 40% PP 2023/24. This has had a huge impact on our funding increasing it to at least £20,000 per year. When pupils join our school in EYFS we apply for every pupil to check for their eligibility and apply on their behalf. This has proven to be the most effective way to ensure pupils who are entitled to PP receive the funding.

Our internal data shows that on average between 44.1% of our disadvantaged pupils are working below ARE in Reading, Writing and Maths by the end of the 2023/24 academic year. We aim to reduce this to below 20%. We will continue to offer quality first teaching and ask subject coordinators to include disadvantaged pupil opportunities in their curriculum focus. Teachers will also plan for enrichment and provide SMSC/Cultural Capital opportunities every half term.

We have identified different roles within our setting to promote disadvantage pupils. Our admin team approach parents for eligibility to apply for PP. Our pastoral team monitor attendance and work with social care to support with mental health and family engagement. Our SLT coordinate quality first teaching and CPD for staff. Our teachers and support staff work with our pupil’s offering intervention and teaching, communicate with parents and offer parent evenings and cultural capital experiences through trips and inviting experiences into school.

Our assessment of the reasons for these outcomes’ points primarily to Covid-19 impact, which disrupted all our subject areas to varying degrees. As evidenced in schools across the country, school closure was most detrimental to our disadvantaged pupils, and they were not able to benefit from our pupil premium funded improvements to teaching and targeted interventions to the degree we had intended. The impact was mitigated by our resolution to maintain a high-quality curriculum, including during periods of partial closure, which was aided by use of online resources such as those provided by Oak National Academy. During the years 2022/23/24 we have invested in new schemes of work to enhance our wider curriculum, to ensure continuity and a good progression of knowledge and skills across all year groups.

Overall attendance 89% in 2023/24 was below the national average 92.4% (2022/23) This gap is larger than in previous years, which is why attendance is a focus of our current plan. Our assessments and observations indicate that absenteeism due to Covid-related absences between the years 2020-2023 is negatively impacting pupils’.

The Pastoral team run an Enrichment club every Tuesday after school. A high proportion of children who are selected for the club are Pupil Premium. A high proportion of disadvantaged children receive Emotional Literacy support from the Pastoral team.

 

There are currently 35 (25 of whom are disadvantaged) children whose families are receiving support from external agencies and are therefore also receiving support from Pastoral staff within school. This includes attending multi-agency meetings on a regular basis, completing detailed reports, liaising with staff within school and communicating with outside agencies. 

Pastoral staff regularly monitor and communicate with these children to gain their wishes and feelings and provide emotional support where needed. The Pastoral team have regular communication with Parents and Carers. School have observed a significant increase in the number of referrals for children and families. Referrals include: MHST, Koala, Family Support and Cheshire Young Carers. School complete housing support letters and signpost parents to relevant agencies.

 

The current percentage for whole school persistent absence (less than 90% attendance) is 24.4%. Pastoral staff regularly monitor whole school attendance. This is completed daily, weekly, half termly and termly. Appropriate actions are taken when concerns are identified. These include verbal communication with parents, attendance and punctuality letters sent home, attendance meetings, action plans drawn up and referrals to Education Welfare where needed.