What is the Pupil Premium?

Key facts:

The Pupil Premium is allocated to children from low-income families who are currently known to be eligible, or have been eligible, for free school meals (FSMs) and looked after children (LAC).  Nationally, as a group, children who have been eligible for FSMs at any point in time have consistently lower educational attainment than those who have never been eligible for FSMs.

Provision

• All our work supported by the Pupil Premium will be aimed at accelerating progress and moving children to at least age-related expectations. The range of provision prioritised for these pupils includes

1. Reducing the sizes of teaching groups thus improving opportunities for effective Assessment for Learning and accelerating progress
2. Providing small group work with an experienced teacher focussed on overcoming gaps in learning
3. 1-1 support and tuition
4. Additional teaching and learning opportunities provided through learning mentors, trained teaching assistants (TAs), external agencies and extracurricular activities.

• A crucial element of our work, which underpins academic progress, is the emotional support and personal development for vulnerable children
• Pupil Premium resources will also be used to target able children, receiving FSMs, to achieve a greater depth standard
• Pupil Premium is allocated following a needs analysis, which identifies priority classes, groups or individuals.

Enriching the environment
The pupil premium also goes to support activity beyond the usual classroom timetable; this includes activity that will enrich the student’s whole being and provide further opportunities such as –

• Music instrumental lessons
• Educational and residential visits 
• Curriculum weeks with visiting speakers, workshops and performances

Targeted support

At Lynch Hill we work closely with parents and carers to ensure we are fully supporting the pupil in every way we can, in a planned and monitored process. This includes using external resources if necessary, such as the support tools below:

• Learning interventions according to need, short and long-term
• Looked after children – support budget
• Parenting groups
• Family Support Adviser
• Additional Educational Psychologist time
• Speech and language support with staff trained to deliver Speech Links and NELI
• Sensory room
• Phonics scheme
• Nurture group
• Mentoring for emotional support
• ELSA

Extended school support

In addition to the above, we are constantly seeking other ways that we can support our pupils before and after school, such as:

• Increased sports participation through extra-curricular activities
• 3 x Sports coaches
• Holiday clubs
• Breakfast service and morning clubs
• Homework clubs
• Booster clubs
• Trips and residential visits

This list of activities is not definitive. It is continually under review and is adapted to the changing needs of the pupils at Lynch Hill School.

Click here to view the Pupil Premium Strategy for 2021-24 with review

 

PE & Sport

Information about the grant

The government is providing additional funding of £450 million over three years commencing September 2013 to improve provision of physical education (PE) and sport in primary schools. This funding - provided jointly by the Departments for Education, Health and Culture, Media and Sport – has been allocated to primary school head teachers.  This funding is ring-fenced and therefore can only be spent on provision of PE and sport in schools.

Sustainability & Impact Statement:

It is clearly evident that the profile of sport and physical activity has been raised at Lynch Hill since the introduction of the Sports Premium back in 2013. Whilst a large proportion of the funding each year is spent on the topping up of resources and our involvement in the Slough Sports Network, if this funding were to end, the impact would remain evident for the years to come.

Pupils, parents and staff all agree that sport and physical activity are now an integral part of Lynch Hill and a key factor in what makes this school special. Dedicated PE time for all year groups each week is delivered by a PE team (not funded through the grant). Clubs run before and after school each day and are self-funded, and daily physical activity is now a key feature in every classroom. Sporting participation and success are celebrated at every opportunity and there is a recognition of the positive impact such activities have on attainment and progress and the well-being of the whole child. The Sports Premium sowed the seed for change and ensured that all stakeholders recognise the importance and significance of sport and activity. It is here to stay.

For more information please click on the link below

Download the PE and Sport Grant Strategy 2022/23

Download the PE and Sport Grant Strategy 2021/22Download the PE and Sports Grant Strategy 2020/21Download the PE and Sports Grant report 2019/20Download the PE & Sports Grant report 2018/19

Download the PE & Sports Grant report 2017/18

 

 

Click here to view our Covid Catchup Premium Report 2021-22

 Recovery Premium and National Tutoring

The Recovery Premium Grant and Tutoring Grant are now part of the government’s package of funding to support pupils whose education has been impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19).

The Recovery Premium is a time-limited grant providing over £300m of additional funding for state-funded schools in the 2021 to 2022 academic year and £1bn across the 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024 academic years.

It is focused on pupil premium eligible pupils and pupils in specialist settings such as special schools, special units and pupil referral units (PRUs). This is because of the additional impact of the pandemic on these students.

However, schools can use it to deliver evidence-based approaches for supporting any pupil based on an assessment of individual need.

Recovery premium allocations are calculated on a per pupil basis, at a rate of £145 per eligible primary pupil.

School-led tutoring funding is a ring-fenced grant to fund locally-sourced tutoring provision. The funding covers 60% of the average cost of tutoring, based on a 15-hour tutoring package, at £18 per pupil, per hour, unit cost. The school contributes the other 40%.

As a school, we can use it to help fund tutoring using: 

• Existing staff such as teachers and TAs
• External resources such as private tutors or returning teachers 

We are expected to prioritise disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils for the tutoring, but we have the flexibility to decide which pupils need the most support to help them catch up on lost learning.

Priorities:

Our main school priorities for the Recovery Premium and National Tutoring strategy are: 

•        To further develop our curriculum to impact on lost learning resulting in raised standards of attainment and accelerated progress in Reading, including early reading, Writing and Mathematics by the end of the academic year.

•        To support the emotional well-being and resilience of the whole school community in response to the impact of the pandemic

Spending and Aims:

The overall aims of Recovery Premium and National Tutoring Strategy are:

•        To raise the attainment of all pupils, through quality first teaching and targeted interventions, to close the gap created by COVID-19 school closures as identified in Autumn term baseline data.

•        To embed high quality remote learning that fully supports effective teaching and learning and provides effective marking and feedback for pupils who are at home or isolating.

•        To identify pupils who require additional emotional support and provide a personalised nurture programme

To support the recovery process since 2020, we have allocated funding to a series of in-school support programmes and interventions, as well as after school tuition and booster sessions for identified pupils in KS2. Booster sessions will be led by LHSPA teaching staff and supports the EEF statement that ‘Tuition delivered by qualified teachers is likely to have the highest impact.’ 

Bespoke therapy or nurture sessions have been planned with pupils that have been identified in school or through parental concerns.

Recovery at Lynch Hill is

(For all children)

• Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes, with a strong focus on quality first teaching and a rich universal offer.
• Focus on consolidation of basic skills. The core skills which enable successful learning will require increased curriculum time across all year groups. These include: handwriting, spelling of high frequency words, basic sentence punctuation, times tables recall, basic addition & subtraction fact recall and reading skills relevant to age.
• Particular focus on early reading and phonics. This is always a focus in the school and will continue to be so in order to develop children’s reading ability and vocabulary. The investment in RWI is central to the progress made by pupils at Lynch Hill.
• Assessment of learning and of basic skills to identify major gaps. Teachers will work to identify gaps in learning and adapt teaching accordingly. As a PiXL school, we adopt the DTTR approach (Diagnosis, Therapy, Test, Review)
• Time spent on mental health, wellbeing and social skills development. This will be at the core of all catch up work as we recognise that the impact of the pandemic is still felt by many.

 (For some children)

• Additional support and focus on basic core skills. Supported by additional staffing utilising catch up premium – dependent on need as identified through ongoing assessment.
• Additional time to practice basic skills. This again will be dependent on need of children in order to re-establish good progress in the essentials (phonics and reading, increasing vocabulary, writing and mathematics) and there will be flexibility on timetables to allow this.
• More targeted mental health, wellbeing and social skills development