What is the ‘Pupil Premium?’

Introduced in April 2011, the Pupil Premium is a Government initiative that provides additional funding aimed at pupils from deprived backgrounds. Research shows that pupils from deprived backgrounds underachieve compared to their non-deprived peers. The Pupil Premium is provided in order to support these pupils in reaching their potential by accelerating their progress. This year the amount allocated to each qualifying pupil is £1300. This ensures that the school is able to target resources where they are needed most to address inequalities.

It is for schools to decide how to spend the pupil premium funding they receive.  At West Hill Primary Academy we use the funding we receive to purchase additional resources and to address both the academic and pastoral needs of our children to ensure they make good progress and achieve well.

The Government has used pupils entitled to Free School Meals and those who are looked after as an indicator for deprivation. Therefore it is really important to make sure all children who qualify are registered for Free School Meals even if you choose to send a packed lunch for them. If you are entitled to Free School Meals your child would also be entitled to free milk on a daily basis.

Please ask us if you think you may be entitled – or click on the attachment below to see if you might be and pop into the school office or see the website here.

Our Aim

To ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds are able to make the same progress as, or better progress than, their peers.

Our Principles

At West Hill we believe that extra-curricular activities and the opportunity to enjoy educational trips and visits should be open to all children, irrespective of family income. Every child has the right to feel inspired, to achieve academic success and to grow emotionally and socially during their time at West Hill.

We use our Pupil Premium funding to achieve these goals by:

• Ensuring that teaching and learning across the school is at least of a ‘good’ standard. Robust monitoring ensures that all children are engaged, supported and challenged in order to make excellent progress.
• Providing opportunities and ‘life-experiences’, which the children might not otherwise have access to. These include trips and clubs.
• Seeking to ensure that disadvantaged children attend school with the same regularity as their non-disadvantaged peers.
• Promoting positive behaviour for learning across the school to support an environment, which empowers all children to make excellent progress.
• Supporting pupils, parents and carers in order to help them to deal with the pressures of modern life. This may involve counselling sessions for pupils with emotional needs. Subsidised access to breakfast and after school clubs will also be offered.

West Hill Primary Academy – A Summary of the Impact of Pupil Premium

Our most recent OFSTED report in March 2013 identified that ‘the school has been successful in promoting equality of opportunity for all pupils.’ It went to report that ‘The gap in attainment between those pupils who are eligible for pupil premium funding and the rest is narrowing as a result of the governing body’s decision to target the funds explicitly on additional support for individual pupils, including a programme to boost their achievement in mathematics.’  It continued to state that ‘The school’s own assessment data show that, in all year groups, those pupils who benefit from pupil premium funding are beginning to reach similar levels of attainment, as measured by their average point scores, to other pupils in the school in both English and mathematics.’

The funding has been used well to give adults additional training to support eligible pupils, however now that we are in 2017 we believe that improvements can be made in closing the gap between Pupil premium students and non-pupil premium students even further across the whole school.  We will do this by promoting equality of opportunity in learning by providing pupils with extra help in lessons, in small groups or individually as required.