Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium

The Pupil Premium Grant is allocated to children from low-income families who are known to be eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months and children of service personnel. This includes pupils eligible for FSM at any point in the last six years (known as the Ever 6 FSM measure). Research shows that these pupils underachieve compared to their peers. The Pupil Premium Grant is provided to schools in order to support these pupils in reaching their potential.

The Pupil Premium Plan for this year can be found below.  Our Pupil Premium Strategy is reviewed each academic year.  We are constantly tracking and analysing pupil progress and attainment to secure the best possible outcomes.  A great deal of time and effort is also invested to ensure pupils' social and emotional needs are being met and nurtured.  Since the pandemic, we continue to work hard to swiftly identify gaps in learning and tailor support, resources and our approach to ensure the gap is narrowed between our Pupil Premium pupils and other pupils. 
 

The range of ways we support our children includes:

• Quality first teaching in class

• Targeted teaching – focused feedback and teaching from teachers and learning support assistants

• 1:1 support

• Additional small group work

• Half termly progress meetings with the class teacher, to which parents are invited

• Financial support for visits and events

• Financial support for school uniform

• Strategies implemented to address and improve attendance

• Support and signposting to other agencies for pupils with emotional needs

• Purchasing of specific resources

Summary of barriers sometimes faced by pupils eligible for Pupil Premium, these often include:

• Motivation or "availability to learn" 

• Social and cultural barriers

• Social, emotional, mental and physical health

• Personal issues which can affect learning

• Poor attendance, punctuality and engagement

Attainment

In Year 1, all children complete the National Phonics Screening.  In both 2022 and 2023, 100% of our pupils eligible for Pupil Premium passed. Overall our school was in the top 4% of all schools nationally, something we were personally congratulated on. 

In Year 4, all children take the Multiplication Tables Check (MTC).  Whilst there is no 'pass mark' published we do know that the mean average score for all pupils nationally who took the test was 19.8 out of 25.  At our school, pupils eligible for Pupil Premium averaged 20.6.

Finally we celebrate our Key Stage 2 SATs results and compare not only how pupils eligible for Pupil Premium compare to their peers in our school but also how our pupils compare nationally.

Attendance

We strive to ensure attendance for all our pupils is the absolute best it can be and recognise that barriers to attendance can be complex.  We listen carefully to the child's voice as well as the parent's and draw on a number of strategies to support good attendance.

For the academic year 2022 - 2023 attendance in state-funded primary schools was 94%, whereas Mersea Island School's attendance was 95%.  Nationally, pupils eligible for free school meals had an 88.6% attendance, for pupils at Mersea Island School this was 92.6%.