School Overview

Pupil Premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged students of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers.

‘Disadvantaged students’ are those who have claimed free school meals at any point in the last six years and students in care, or who left care through adoption or another formal route. Evidence shows that the progress and achievement of disadvantaged students is normally lower than that of ‘other’ students.

Nationally, those students who are entitled to Pupil Premium underperform in comparison to other students, and there is a difference in attainment and progress at GCSE between Pupil Premium students and Non-Pupil Premium students. This means that overall, a Pupil Premium student does not make as much progress from entry in Year 7 to leaving in Year 11 as a Non-Pupil Premium student with the same starting point. Many reasons can be attributed to this but are all related to the barriers to success that disadvantaged students may have to overcome.

Perryfields High School is a Local Authority maintained 11-16 comprehensive school in Sandwell, situated in Brandhall, Oldbury. Our school serves a densely populated area that is ethnically diverse. The number of students eligible for Pupil Premium funding was 342. The amount received per Pupil Premium student was £935 totalling £308,465 (funding based on students on roll at the time of the census). We have an ethos centred on excellence in our school and expect to see this demonstrated by all of our school community.

We also recognise that not all students who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any student or groups of students the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

At Perryfields High School the Progress 8 difference between Pupil Premium students and Non-Pupil Premium students is -0.24 (DFE data). Progress 8 for disadvantaged students was -0.35 which is better than the National like for like which was -0.45 (DFE data). The Pupil Premium Grant is directed and spent with a view to diminishing this difference.

The Government is not prescribing how schools should spend this money but are clear that schools will need to employ the strategies that they know will support their students to increase their progress and attainment to ‘narrow the gap’. Schools will be accountable for narrowing the gap and school performance tables include measures that show the attainment and progress of students who receive the student premium compared with their peers.

Our vision for Pupil Premium is to ensure that students from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to access an enriching curriculum, achieve and attain excellence, as well as having ambitious aspirations throughout their education and beyond.

We have an unrelenting ambition to tackle and overcome the barriers and obstacles faced by students classified as ‘Disadvantaged’ by creatively utilising Pupil Premium funding to ensure that their needs are met. As a school we have split this into 4 main areas:

When students enter the secondary phase at Perryfields we ensure we know and understand the starting points for their academic progress. We gain valuable information from their Primary Schools and additionally we carry out several important baseline assessments, for example their reading ages and baseline assessments in each subject area.

The pupil premium funding will be spent on ensuring that all students in both Key Stages are making progress in the key skills needed to succeed at Perryfields and ensure they are properly prepared for the next stage of their education.

The most important skills are:

• Reading – Comprehension and Fluency
• Writing – including spelling & grammar
• Use of Number

Without these skills students will not reach their potential. For students who enter the secondary phase with reading ages well below their chronological age, we will deliver a personalised programme of ‘catch up’ to help them improve on this vital skill. The catch-up reading programme will be based on regular intensive small group sessions using either Inclusion support and/or accelerated reading. Alongside this we want to encourage students of all ages to read for pleasure. Ensuring that both young people and their parents have access to high quality stimulating reading
materials, it is a priority that a wide range of books are available in the school’s Learning Resource Centre and used in PDM sessions weekly.

Within the curriculum we pay for additional staffing which can help us support learning that is personalised to the needs of the individual and to groups of learners. For example, in our core subjects of English, Maths and Science additional staffing is deployed throughout KS3 and 4 to enhance opportunities, increase student contact and provide lower student teacher ratios.

Throughout their time at Perryfields we will intervene to support students who fall behind in these core skills.
This will be done through interventions such as:

• Enhanced student teacher ratios
• Small group interventions, e.g. reading support
• 1:1 Tuition, e.g. Maths Futures
• In class support, e.g. Maths ambassadors

For many students, becoming a teenager is not the easiest of times. This can lead to emotional difficulties both at home and at school. We believe that employing high quality staff to help students overcome any potential barriers to learning is essential. There are many students who do rely on this to succeed at school and without this personal approach would become disengaged. This mentoring will mean supporting students, emotionally but also ensuring that they are challenged to work hard, succeed and overcome their barriers to learning. Some of this work involves helping students to raise their aspirations. Therefore, some funding will be targeted at helping students identify future opportunities. For example, opening their eyes to the possibilities of further and higher education and/or maintaining high standards of attendance/punctuality.

A key aspect of our ethos at Perryfields is our belief in the need to develop memorable learning experiences. This includes curriculum trips and visits as well as residentials. Whils our residential trips have been designed to be very cost effective, we understand that for some students this could still be a barrier.

A key part of our focus is on developing the talents of the students. We believe that talents within areas such as sport, dance or drama will only develop into lifelong passions if an accessible extended curriculum is offered: therefore, enhancing opportunities for enrichment.

The pupil premium funding will help all students access this curriculum and help students discover their talents.

Bringing up children and teenagers is never any easy time. The additional stresses provided by financial worries will also impact on this. We believe that providing high quality support to parents of children who are finding it difficult to progress at school can impact greatly on their success. We want to provide regular structured meetings where parents can discuss their concerns and jointly identify strategies which can help students succeed at school and at home. We have used pupil premium to strengthen support for students’ social, emotional and general pastoral needs by increasing support staff for Inclusion, Attendance and Welfare, Learning Mentors and external support agencies.

The evaluation of this policy is based on how quickly Perryfields can ‘narrow the gap’ between socially disadvantaged students and their peers as well as:

• Increased and improving reading levels
• Effective parental student support
• Create a positive atmosphere in which students’ differences are recognised and valued as full members of the school community; developing confident and independent learners
• Providing opportunities to enrich students’ curriculum through a wide range of school activities