Pupil premium and catch up premium

PUPIL PREMIUM AND CATCH UP PREMIUM

The government offers funding to tackle inequalities between children on free school meals and their peers called the pupil premium. There is also further funding for any Year 7 student who has not achieved ‘expected’ in reading and/or maths at Key Stage 2 known as the Year 7 catch up premium.

Pupil premium funding is allocated to a school based on the number of students who are or have been in receipt of free school meals or children who are looked after by a local authority or children whose parents are in the armed forces. To find out more click here.

School Name	Ashington Academy
Pupils in school	970
Proportion of disadvantaged pupils	34.46%
Pupil Premium allocation this academic year	£297,960
Academic year or years covered by this statement	2020-2021
Review date	October 2021

Disadvantaged pupil performance overview for last academic year:

Progress 8	+0.04
% of students entered for EBacc	14%
Attainment 8	46.08
Percentage of Grade 5+ in English and Maths	38.1%

 

Pupil Premium strategy aims for disadvantaged pupils

Aim	Target	Target Date
Progress 8	Disadvantaged students’ P8 matches that of national non-disadvantaged students.	September 2021
Attainment 8	Achieve equivalent attainment to national non-disadvantaged students.	September 2021
Percentage of Grade 5+ in English and Maths	Considering prior attainment – increasing the proportion of disadvantaged students achieving Grade 5+ in English and Maths.	September 2021
EBacc entry	Increase the number of disadvantaged students achieving EBacc.	September 2021
Attendance	Improve attendance of disadvantaged students to national average.	September 2021

 

The Current Year 2020-2021

All students at Ashington Academy study a broad, ambitious and challenging curriculum. Additionally, all students have access to extra-curricular opportunities and visits to enhance their experience of the curriculum.

The Academy is aware that some disadvantaged students face complex barriers during their education, which make effective learning difficult. Some students may have very specific needs and others may face few barriers at all. Some of the main difficulties faced by disadvantaged students are identified below, although it must be noted that this is not an exhaustive list and that the difficulties encountered are not unique to those who are disadvantaged.

The main barriers faced by eligible students in 2020-2021 are:

1.  Some students struggle to attend regularly and of these students, some are persistently absent.
2. Some students struggle to manage their behaviour.
3. Some students need extensive pastoral support for a variety of reasons.
4. Some students struggle with the increased complexity of organization within a secondary environment and increased demands for independent work.
5. Some students face significant challenges in their lives and have social, emotional and mental health needs that prevent them from learning.
6. Some students need additional adult support to help to enable them to fully achieve their potential both during the school day and after school with managing homework.
7. Some students need individual tuition and/or teaching in small groups to enable them to achieve.
8. Some students have little aspiration for the future and are in need of additional adult support and additional careers guidance so that they do not limit their own potential.
9. Some students have low levels of literacy and numeracy which impedes their learning and their confidence.
10. Some students lack access to the internet and the use of computers to support their studies.
11. Some students lack space to study with adult support.
12. Some students need to experience a wealth of enrichment experiences in-order to widen their horizons and unlock future opportunities.
13. School uniform can cause significant challenges for some families, as can transport.
14. Some students do not have access to a healthy diet which impacts on their general well-being. Some do not participate regularly in sports and need proactive, individual support in order to overcome barriers.
15. All students need the highest quality of teaching in every classroom.

Teaching Priorities for the current academic year 2020-2021

Priority	Activity
High quality teaching and learning across the curriculum	All teachers know who their disadvantaged students are and are seated in appropriate places   All teachers focus on language, literacy and oracy development.   Teachers introduce students to a range of revision techniques, which are rooted in cognitive science.   SMART Retrieval activities are used in every lesson to consolidate prior learning.
Developing reading and vocabulary across the academy	All staff have received training on the teaching of vocabulary and oracy.   All tutor will groups read a novel together.
Barriers to learning these priorities address	Disadvantaged students have different levels of parental support which can have an impact on their outcomes.
Projected spending	£78,500

 

Targeted Academic Support for current academic year 2020-2021

Ensuring that bespoke support is in place to support disadvantaged students to make maximised progress	Academic mentoring of students to support and provide a link between school and home     Intervention activities are designed to close gaps for all students achieving below expected progress.
Ensuring that all students are able to complete homework and have access to a space to study	Homework club will be a safe place for students to complete homework with guidance if required
Barriers to learning these priorities address	Ensuring that staff qualified staff are able to offer the support when required, both during the school day and outside of normal school hours
Projected spending	£86,260

 

Wider Priorities for current academic year 2020-2021

Improving behaviour and self-regulation	There is a team of Year Managers who monitor behaviour and support students during their time at Ashington Academy   The Pastoral Liaison Team adopts a multi-agency approach when dealing with students who are experiencing problems both in and outside of the Academy
Improving attendance	The dedicated academy attendance officer works closely as part of the Care and Guidance team
Improvising the aspirations of disadvantaged students	All students have access to high quality careers education, information, advice and guidance including support when choosing options    Financial support is provided to enable students to participate in school trips and theatre visits.
Barriers to learning these priorities address	Disadvantaged students miss on some of the opportunities that children from more wealthy families benefit from resulting in low aspirations in school, poor attendance and behaviour
Projected spending	133,200

 

Area	Challenge	Mitigating Action
Teaching	Ensuring that all students have access to high quality teaching and learning across all curriculum areas.	A robust process of monitoring teaching and learning is in place. A CPD programme that is built upon the best available evidence and current pedagogical thought.
Targeted support	Ensuring that the identification of students who need support is robust.	Smart use of data to ensure early identification of the students who are likely to fall behind.
Wider Strategies	Ensuring that all staff have received training to teach reading and vocabulary.	Working closely with other agencies to help improve attendance. Close monitoring of reading and vocabulary registration activities.

 

Reviews of Impact

The impact of our actions above are reviewed termly and in every meeting with the Local Academy Council. Some of the impact is qualitative (e.g. the impact of enrichment opportunities) but some is quantitative (e.g. achievement data, numbers of behavioural incidents, attendance figures). This data is gathered during regular meetings with senior staff and through analysing the data at key data input points.

Individual students are monitored daily where necessary, to ensure actions to support them are taken swiftly.

Clearly, the over-arching impact of this work is to raise the standards achieved by disadvantaged students and to prepare them for the next stage of their education/employment or training.

Ultimately, the impact of our actions over time are seen as students reach the end of Key Stage 4 and Key Stage 5. The impact for each child at an individual level is monitored carefully during each academic year as they progress towards their external examinations.

 

Year 7 Catch Up Premium

We receive some educational funding each year for Year 7 students who have not achieved ‘expected’ in reading and/or maths at Key Stage 2.

Ashington Academy received additional funding of £64,900 for Year 7 students who did not achieve ‘expected’ for the academic year 2019/2020. The additional grant has been primarily used to target support in small groups.

Use of additional funding

Use of small group teaching focuses on building and re-enforcing a strong skill base in reading, writing, spelling, comprehension and numeracy that provides students with the toolkit of skills that they require to access the mainstream curriculum more effectively.  A bespoke teaching group with individual students identified by SENCo, Director of Key Stage and Year Manager. Students taught in smaller groups and have access to additional adult support and resources as far as practicable.

Whole School Literacy and Numeracy

There is a whole school focus on students’ literacy and numeracy skills across the curriculum. All departments ensure that literacy and numeracy are developed and enhanced within their curriculum. All departments are increasingly explicitly teaching tier 3 vocabulary in their curriculum.  Selected students took part in paired reading with 6^th form students to develop their reading. 6^th form students took part in training in order to support this scheme. 

 Whole school use of differentiation

A differentiated approach to learning ensures that individual needs are met and that all students have access to an appropriate curriculum and are challenged to move forward.

Impacts of funding

Students were becoming confident in their reading and there were also observed improvements in their numeracy skills. However no formal assessments took place at the end of the year due to Covid-19. 

Progress was maintained during lockdown with additional support for low ability students and those with difficulties in accessing online learning. Flattening the curve booklets were provided with an aim of consolidating and strengthening learning that took place during lockdown.