At St Mary's Catholic Primary School, we are committed to ensuring that every child, regardless of their background or circumstances, is known, valued and enabled to flourish. Rooted in our mission, "Love God, Love Others and Love Ourselves," our Pupil Premium strategy is designed to ensure that disadvantaged pupils receive the highest quality education, enabling them to achieve as well as, or better than, their peers.

Our approach is founded on the belief that high-quality, adaptive teaching is the most effective way to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. We therefore prioritise Quality First Teaching across the school, ensuring that teaching is ambitious, inclusive and responsive to individual needs. This is complemented by carefully targeted academic interventions and wider pastoral support, where appropriate, to remove barriers to learning, improve attendance, enhance wellbeing and raise aspirations.

Pupil Premium funding is allocated following a thorough analysis of pupils' academic, social, emotional and pastoral needs. Leaders use a wide range of evidence, including assessment information, attendance, pupil voice and professional judgement, to identify the most effective support for individuals and groups. The impact of all interventions is monitored and evaluated regularly to ensure that resources are used effectively and provide the greatest possible benefit for pupils.

While many pupils eligible for Pupil Premium face barriers associated with disadvantage, we recognise that not all disadvantaged pupils are eligible for the grant, and not all eligible pupils experience the same challenges. Consequently, the school reserves the right to use Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or group of pupils whom leaders have legitimately identified as being disadvantaged or at risk of underachievement. As funding is finite, support is carefully prioritised according to need and may change over time as pupils' circumstances and barriers to learning evolve.

Our ambition is that every disadvantaged pupil leaves St Mary's as a confident, resilient and successful learner, equipped with the knowledge, skills and character to flourish in the next stage of their education and beyond.

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Develop a culture for love for reading:

- Introduce diverse authors to promote British Values across the school.

- Every class to have a well-resources book corner promoting love for reading for pleasure and purpose.

- Children to change books regularly ensuring all children have had exposure to a vast variety of books and genre. This will in return increase their quest for books.

-World Book Day, author visits, visits to local libraries and Poetry Day celebrated across the school to provide enriching experiences to all children irrespective of their background.
 

There is a growing body of evidence that illustrates the importance of reading for pleasure for both educational purposes as well as personal development. Evidence suggests that there is a positive relationship between reading frequency, reading enjoyment and attainment. - EEF

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Designated Pastoral Lead –RSE/PSHE Lead who can support teachers in delivering resources and lessons to support children’s mental health.

 Member of staff trained as a senior mental health lead. The programme was funded by DfE. Working closely with local Mental Health Support Team funded by NHS to implement and improve our mental health provision both for all stake holders – children, parents and staff. 

Effective social and emotional learning (SEL) can increase positive pupil behaviour, mental health and well-being, and academic performance. -EEF

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-School pays towards funding for school initiatives including, online homework, trips, lunches and school uniform.

Widening wealth inequality and the cost-of-living crisis will only make this harder, given the incredibly strong relationship between family income and education attainment. As school energy and food costs increase, it is vital that school leaders are not forced to direct resources away from the things which the evidence shows are likely to make the biggest difference to the attainment gap. - EEF

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Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

School uniform for children.

We have supported many families in funding their child’s school uniform; this affects the wellbeing of the child as they feel part of the school community.

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Referral to outside support services for further assessments, support and advice.

-BCCS Counselling

Brentwood Catholic Children’s Society has shown that children benefit from this service, building up self-esteem and emotional development at home and within the school life. Qualified and dedicated counsellors care for the children and they intervene as soon as a problem arises and work together with children and their families. -BCCS

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Contingency fund for acute issues.

We have identified a need to set a small amount of funding aside to respond quickly to the needs that have not yet been identified.

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