Pupil Premium

"Leaders make effective use of the pupil premium funding to improve the progress of disadvantaged pupils."
Ofsted, 2016

What is the Pupil Premium

Is my child eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant?

Ever 6 free school meals

The pupil premium for 2021 to 2022 will include pupils recorded in the January 2021 school census who are known to have been eligible for FSM since May 2015, as well as those first known to be eligible at January 2021.

If you think you might qualify for Free School Meals, please click here

Children adopted from care or who have left care

The pupil premium for 2021 to 2022 will include pupils recorded in the January 2021 school census and alternative provision census, who were looked after by an English or Welsh local authority immediately before being adopted, or who left local authority care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order0. These are collectively referred to as post LAC in these conditions of grants.

Ever 6 service child

For the purposes of these grant conditions, Ever 6 service child means a pupil recorded in the January 2021 school census who was eligible for the service child premium since the January 2015 census as well as those recorded as a service child for the first time on the January 2021 school census.

Last Year's Pupil Premium Expenditure

In September 2020 there were 181 students in school who qualified for Pupil Premium (Year 7 – 36, Year 8 38, Year 9 – 26, Year 10 – 27, Year 11 – 33). This represents around 17% of the entire school population. This cohort changes regularly as each family’s financial circumstances change.

The Department of Education makes it clear that the total Pupil Premium funding received by the school should be used to support the academic achievement of Pupil Premium students as a whole. At St Benedict’s our overriding aim is to ensure that all students reach their potential both academically and socially. To this end, Pupil Premium funds are used to support the curriculum and curriculum enrichment opportunities, so as to ensure that the utmost is done to help engage students in school life, and to raise overall attainment.

Funds are used in a variety of ways to provide additional support, intervention and opportunities for all students, but with a special focus on those receiving free school meals.

Some examples of support and intervention are:

High-quality teaching – St Benedict’s has focused on high quality first teaching based on Rosenshine’s Principles of Instruction and metacognition, which helps all students make progress, particularly students on the Pupil Premium Register.
Targeted academic support – There were intensive English and Maths intervention sessions following the summer exams in 2021 and these are continuing in the current academic year. PP funding has been used for CatchUp Literacy and CatchUp Numeracy training to help.
Support During Lockdowns - Students on the PP register were regularly contacted by their form tutor or a member of the pastoral support team. The school sourced Raspberry Pi computers, some of which were provided to students on the PP register, which enabled students to access lessons on Microsoft Teams.
Academic Support Programmes – The Accelerated Reader Programme and GCSEPod subscription are partly paid for using PP funds. The AR programme helps to identify students with low reading ages, allowing us to provide targeted intervention as well as allowing us to monitor progress. The GCSEPod programme has been very beneficial to many students in KS4 including students on the PP register.
Reductions for music tuition fees – St Benedict’s believes that all students should have the opportunity to study a musical instrument and PP funding is used to provide group lessons.
Reductions for Duke of Edinburgh Expeditions – PP funding has been used to provide financial support to students to help them access the DofE programme, particularly the Expedition section.
Breakfast Club – In order to provide wrap around support to students on the PP register, this academic year, 2021 – 2022, we have started a Breakfast Club and a Homework Club. PP funding will be used to provide students on the PP register with a hot drink and toast/cereal while they complete homework, receive additional academic support or simply enjoy the facilities in the school library, during the breakfast club.

Pupil Premium Impact

2021 GCSE Results

	English & Maths 9-4	English & Maths 9-5	Attainment 8	Progress 8
All students	79%	64%	55.69	1.10
Non PP	83%	69%	58.13	1.18
PP	67%	40%	45.83	0.79
National Other (Non PP)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

2020 GCSE Results

	English & Maths9-4	English & Maths 9-5	Attainment 8	Progress 8
All students	79	60	55.32	0.70
Non PP	79	62	56.76	0.85
PP	71	43	46.48	-0.24
National Other (Non PP)	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

2019 GCSE Results

English & Maths 9-4

English & Maths 9-5

Attainment 8

Progress 8

All students

71.1%

53.7%

5.2

0.30

Non PP

72.8%

56.3%

5.3

0.44

61.1%

38.9%

4.3

-0.38

In school gap

-11.7%

-17.4%

-1.0

-0.82

National Other (Non PP)

Gap between PP students at St Benedict’s and non PP students nationally

The progress of Pupil Premium at GCSE over time

	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20	2020-21
All students	74%	74%	67%	72%	79%	79%
Non PP students	75%	79%	70%	73%	79%	83%
PP students	41%	55%	58%	71%	71%	67%
St Benedict’s Gap between Non PP and PP (In school gap)	-6%	-24%	-12%	-2%	-8	-16%
National Other (Non PP)	70%	71%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
Gap between PP students at St Benedict’s and non PP students nationally	-1%	-16%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A
National Gap between Non PP and PP	-27%	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A	N/A

Attendance figures: In school attendance gap (2019-2020)

Year Group	All students	PP students	Gap
Year 7	95.6	94.5	-1.1
Year 8	95.3	94.3	-1
Year 9	95.5	94.8	-0.7
Year 10	94.2	93.3	-0.9
Year 11	95.7	93.2	-2.5
Overall	95.3	94.02	-1.28

Pupil Premium Principles

Improve progress and attainment

This is the key principle of Pupil Premium. We want every student to have the opportunity to make excellent progress and realise their full their considerable potential. Our aim is to remove any barriers to learning and offer targeted support and advice to improve the knowledge, skills and understanding of the curriculum.

Enrich students’ lives through new opportunities and a creative curriculum

We want every student to have opportunities outside ‘classroom’ learning and to develop a variety of life skills that will help them to be socially aware and develop confidence. We want students to have high aspirations and learn to be comfortable in a range of environments and circumstances.

Encourage excellence

We want to offer behavioural and social support and reward consistent excellence and sustained improvement to create safe and supportive learning environments for all students.

Ensure there is no hardship that hinders learning

We want all students to have all the equipment, uniform, resources and technology they need to succeed in education. We want pupils to feel safe on the journey to and from school at school, as well as at school and have excellent attendance and punctuality.