The Pupil Premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities. Schools receive this funding to support their eligible pupils and narrow the attainment gap between them and their peers.
School Effectiveness Partners are able to support raising the achievement of disadvantaged pupils through the allocation of days to school led improvement partnerships or for individual schools through traded days. Please contact Carole Farrer, School Effectiveness Partner by emailing carole.farrer@essex.gov.uk for further information regarding support to teaching staff and school leaders in raising achievement. For queries regarding Pupil Premium entitlement for pupils please contact educationawards@essex.gov.uk.
Addressing Educational Disadvantage - A Strategy for Schools and Colleges
This strategy aims to support teachers, school leaders and system leaders in tackling the entrenched issue of educational disadvantage. Each school has been sent a copy of the book and further copies are available on Amazon. The approach is rooted in evidence and an understanding of good practice. This strategy will help schools to plan, implement and evaluate an effective approach for addressing disadvantage – from system leadership to the classroom. It provides a system wide framework for raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils, leading to better life chances, life choices and opportunity. Identifying and understanding the impact of socio economic disadvantage on learning – and addressing the associated gaps in learning - is critical for building a package of support in schools and colleges. The strategy also provides guidance on self-evaluation and self-review.
Disadvantaged Champions - We recognise the importance of every school having a member of their governing body with responsibility for disadvantaged pupils. It is also beneficial for schools to have a senior member of staff with this responsibility and oversight. To this end School Effectiveness Partners hold disadvantaged clinics for a member of SLT, or an aspiring senior leader, who is identified as the schools Disadvantaged Champion each term. This person will be able to attend a disadvantaged clinic with your partnership SEP to enable discussion and to help put the principles of the strategy into practice. They will also be able to access termly training with Marc Rowland, the Unity Schools Partnership Pupil Premium and Vulnerable Learners Advisor, for the next year, who has been instrumental in writing this strategy for Essex.
We would ask that all schools contact Philippa.Holliday@essex.gov.uk with the name and role of the person identified as your Disadvantaged Champion.
Link Governors – Marc Rowland held a webinar for governors regarding their role in tacking educational disadvantage, this can be viewed on YouTube.
The Disadvantaged Conference took place on Friday 1 October 2021 with over 400 delegates in attendance and 16 speakers from within and outside of Essex. We have published a Post conference digital delegate pack to share the presentations from the day, useful links and information about future events.
The event was not recorded so if you could not attend the event, you can use this resource to find out about key messages shared.
Funding
The PPG per-pupil rate for 2023 to 2024 is as follows:
- Pupils in year groups reception to year 6 as recorded as Ever 6 FSM, as well as eligible children with no recourse to public funds (NRPF) pupils in this year group: £1,455
- Pupils in year 7 to 11 recorded as Ever 6 FSM, as well as eligible NRPF pupils in these year groups: £1035
- Pupils who have been adopted from care or have left care (PLAC): £2,530
- Children who are looked after by the local authority (LAC): £2,530
Service Children
- Eligible service children in year groups reception to year 11: £320
Other Government funding for disadvantaged pupils
Information about Pupil Premium Plus, the Pupil Premium for adopted children, the Service Premium and Early Years Pupil Premium
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement
All schools must use the templates available on GOV.UK to publish their pupil premium strategy. The Department for Education will undertake monitoring checks on a sample of schools' published reports.
The DfE Pupil Premium Strategy Statement template and guidance can be found here. It also includes the school's use of the Recovery Premium which is a payment building on the Pupil Premium for disadvantaged students. More information on the Recovery Premium can be found here.
Please note the use of evidence in the conditions of the grant now says:
Schools must demonstrate how their spending decisions are informed by research evidence, making reference to a range of sources including the Education Endowment Foundation's toolkit. In line with the EEF's pupil premium guide, activities should include those that:
- support the quality of teaching, such as staff professional development;
- provide targeted academic support, such as tutoring; and
- tackle non-academic barriers to success in school, such as attendance, behaviour and social and emotional support
- Marc Rowland who worked with the DfE on the new template and he has written two blogs for schools to support them in developing a strategy:
Pupil Premium Guide
Since 2011 the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has been working with thousands of schools across the country to establish what works best in raising pupils’ attainment. There is now a growing body of evidence on how schools can best help disadvantaged pupils make progress. The EEF has published a pupil premium guide that explains what schools have found works best when spending the pupil premium to improve results.
For enquiries relating to the award of the Pupil Premium Grant please visit the the DfE website.
How we can support you in raising achievement for disadvantaged pupils
- School Effectiveness Partners are able to support raising the achievement of disadvantaged pupils through the allocation of days to school led improvement partnerships or for individual schools through traded days. Please contact Carole Farrer, School Effectiveness Partner for further information by emailing carole.farrer@essex.gov.uk
- For enquiries relating to the award of the Pupil Premium Grant please visit the the DfE website.
- Essex Toolkit
- A traded Essex Pupil Premium Review is available providing personalised and bespoke educational support and advice to your school and/or setting. It is a process undertaken with school leaders to review the use of the Pupil Premium and to make it more effective in raising standards for all disadvantaged pupils. By using a clear framework, school leaders will have a clear understanding of the effectiveness of existing strategies and an evaluation of impact with recommendations for an action plan and next steps that could deliver sustainable improvements to the achievement of disadvantaged pupils. Please contact your SEP for further details.
- Effective Governance for disadvantaged pupils.
Update
- The National Tutoring Programme is a government-funded, sector-led initiative to support schools to address the impact of Covid-19 school closures on pupils' learning. It is designed to tackle the effects of the pandemic on the most disadvantaged children in our society. Further information can be found on the EEF website.
- The EEF have a report regarding the impact of School Closures in KS1- January 2021.
- The Education Endowment Fund (EEF) has published an analysis Closing the Attainment Gap. The report contains 50 key lessons on closing the attainment gap from the EEF's first six years. They include the importance of early years education in closing the gap before it becomes entrenched; targeted small group interventions for those at risk of falling behind; robust and rigorous evaluation of teaching and learning strategies; and sharing effective practice between schools (and building capacity for doing so) as key to closing the gap
Further Information
