Pupil Premium

In April 2011 the Government introduced Pupil Premium, funding which is additional to main school funding.

The purpose of the Pupil Premium is to narrow the attainment gap between pupils from low income families and their peers by ensuring that this funding reaches the pupils who need it most. Schools have the freedom to spend this funding as they see fit based upon their knowledge of pupil needs. An evaluation of the success of a school’s use of the Pupil Premium funding is focused less on the journey that a child takes through the school, but more on their ultimate levels of achievement. In order that they may achieve their full potential, each student eligible for Pupil Premium funding may require, in addition to the core offerings a school may deliver, a bespoke set of interventions, opportunities and support based on their individual needs and circumstances.

Research suggests (Source: Oxford School Improvement) that disadvantaged pupils on average:

• Have less home support than their peers
• Have weaker language and communication skills
• Are more likely to have significant difficulties in basic literacy and numeracy skills
• Experience more frequent behaviour difficulties
• Are less likely to believe that they can control events that affect them

The funding is allocated to schools on the basis of those students who have received Free School Meals at any point in the past 6 years and children who have been “in care” continuously for more than 6 months. As such their needs are inevitably diverse; for example, some of these students may not have faced economic hardship for a number of years whereas others may be presently in a low-income family environment.

It is therefore important that each year a detailed analysis of the academic profile of those students for whom the school receives the Pupil Premium is conducted, together with an evaluation of their individual needs and assessment of potential barriers to learning.

All secondary schools receive £935 for each student eligible for the Pupil Premium funding. It is for schools to decide how this funding is spent, since they are best placed to assess what individual provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility. (Source: DfE website)

At Herne Bay High School approximately 12% of students in Years 7-11 are currently in receipt of Free School Meals and 4% are Children in Care. For the financial year 2016/17 the school received £322,166 Pupil Premium funding from the Government and £57,902 transferred from local authorities for supporting Children in Care

2016-17 Pupil Premium Expenditure

Herne Bay High School allocates the Pupil Premium funding in the four key areas of Leadership, Student Welfare, Curriculum Staffing and Targeted Strategies & Initiatives. In 2016-17 the breakdown in expenditure was as follows:

2016-17 Outcomes

Achievement:

2017 results.

2015/16 – 2016/17 comparisons.

Pupil Premium students have improved their Progress 8 figure from the previous year. This does however use last year’s P8 calculations. The Pupil Premium students suffered a fall in 5A*-CEM by 4.27%, this was in line with the Non PP fall of 3.18%. The Gap between PP and Non PP students has increased by 1.09% and reduction in the increase of previous years.

Attainment in English and math have increased yet again with more students attaining an English pass and Math pass, up by 3.42% and 4.16% respectively

Although the progress that disadvantaged students are making in has improved over the last 3 years, the dip this year was in line with the non PP students. Many of the PP sub-groups out performed previous year’s results. Continued work needs to be done in diminishing the difference between disadvantaged and other pupils in terms of attainment and progress.

Attendance and Exclusions:

The attendance of FSM has increased to 90.9% and non-FSM has increased slightly to 94.84% from the previous year. The number of FSM persistent absentees however has again shown slight improvement. The attendance of all these students continues to be closely monitored and the local authority is involved when appropriate. We also have used many initiatives to try and improve this, including purchasing bus passes to support these students in getting to school.

PP students make up 50% of fixed term exclusions at HBHS, during the 2016-2017 academic year.

2017-18 Pupil Premium Planned Expenditure