Pupil premium strategy statement
School overview
| Metric | Data |
| School name | Lowca Community School |
| Pupils in school | 57 |
| Proportion of disadvantaged pupils | 25% |
| Pupil premium allocation this academic year | £25,865 |
| Academic year or years covered by statement | Sept 2019-July2021 |
| Publish date | 3 .12.2020 |
| Review date | 3.12.2021. |
| Statement authorised by | Joanne Crawford |
| Pupil premium lead | Joanne Crawford |
| Governor lead | Tori Rawlinson |
Disadvantaged pupil progress scores for last academic year
| Measure | Score |
| Reading | 17%GD,58% Exp, 25%WT just before March 2020 Lockdown |
| Writing | 8%GD,50% Exp,42%WT just before March 2020 lockdown |
| Maths | .17%GD, 50% Exp, 33%WT |
Strategy aims for disadvantaged pupils
| Measure | Score |
| Meeting expected standard at KS2 | 80% |
| Achieving high standard at KS2 | 20%. |
| Measure | Activity |
| Priority 1 | Additional teacher employed to allow for high adult to pupil ratio |
| Priority 2 | After school catch up club to fill gaps and misconceptions |
| Barriers to learning these priorities address | Cognitive delay, poor listening skills, leading to gaps in learning |
| Projected spending |
Teaching priorities for current academic year
| Aim | Target | Target date |
| Progress in Reading | 2.0 | July 2021 |
| Progress in Writing | 2.0 | July 2021 |
| Progress in Mathematics | 2.0 | July 2021 |
| Phonics | 84% | July 2021 |
| Other Times table fast recall | 84% | July 2021 |
Remember to focus support on disadvantaged pupils reaching the expected standard in phonics check at end of year 1.
Targeted academic support for current academic year
| Measure | Activity |
| Priority 1 | Build confidence with nurture and positive attitude to learning getting rid of fear of failure and building listening skills and working memory |
| Priority 2 | Special needs style 1:1 support to keep up while catching up. |
| Barriers to learning these priorities address | Poor working memory, need for more practical style of learning, need for lots of repetition due to cognitive delay. |
| Projected spending | £25865 |
Wider strategies for current academic year
| Measure | |
| Priority 1 |
Each child that qualifies for Pupil premium grant has different needs and challenges and their support is also bespoke. Because each pupil has different barriers and different “gaps” or difficulties our strategy is to approach the disadvantaged group in the same way as we would with a child who has special needs or a learning difficulty. In both cases we invest a lot of effort and time in nurturing a child’s confidence and really praising effort and achievement with regular discussion. Along with our COVID catch up grant we have pooled the money to organise children into small groups of 15 or less and with 2 adults. This gives us an excellent pupil to adult ratio and so we are able to support and stretch pupils with their everyday learning objectives and so avoid withdrawal work (which can lead to the child missing their current work and becoming increasingly behind.)For example when learning about column addition with tens and units a child might be struggling with a difficulty counting in tens. The high adult to pupil ratios mean that within the lesson we can be flexible enough to give them counting in ten games, practical grouping of objects and pictorial scaffolds tailored to their speed of concept acquisition so that within the lesson they are encouraged to catch up with historical concept misunderstandings while keeping up with the current learning. Pupils are tested at the end of each term at and their results are monitored. This termly tracking data is analysed and shows that Pupil premium interventions were effective as the majority of pupil premium pupil’s rate of progress was at least, or more than, chronologically expected. This monitoring also considers pupil’s special educational needs. |
| Priority 2 | See above |
| Barriers to learning these priorities address | These barriers to learning range from poor home support, damaged confidence and low self-esteem, being passive, being overactive, slow processing, having poor behaviour following inconsistent rewards and sanctions ,having difficulties concentrating, poor listening skills, delayed speech or being withdrawn as a result of negative feedback or trauma. |
| Projected spending |
Total spend: £25,865 To employ additional teacher and apprentice T.A. |
Monitoring and Implementation
| Area | Challenge | Mitigating action |
| Teaching | Disadvantaged learning difficulties addressed. | Meeting with head to help design strategies in IEP to boost progress. |
| Targeted support | Training on nurturing, developing working memory and the ability to move from practical experiences to abstract thought | Use of INSET days and additional cover being provided by senior leaders |
| Wider strategies | Absorb effective National strategies and good progress based on educational research | Share successes at cluster level |
Review: last year’s aims and outcomes
| Aim | Outcome |
| Improve attendance | Current attendance 97% (Sept 2020-Dec2020) |
| Progress improved in Early years | Internal tracking showed good progress up to March lockdown |
| % phonics test passed in line with National norms | December test for year 2 whom missed the June 2020 test was 84% pass – an increase from 33% |
Sports funding 2019- 2020
The allocation for this period was £16,490
We have used this to
- Provided a secure exercise area adjacent to junior class room .£800
- Judo subsidy (10 weeks for 1hr 30 mins) and kits.£250
- Swimming lessons, transport and staff supervision of weekly sessions.£2,970
- Each child to have a “fit bit” with watch and step/exercise counter.£150
- Interschool Rugby Union league, coaching and matches, transport.£120
- Taking part in outward bound activities subsidy.£255
- Cross country events with small schools.£40
- Small schools gymnastic events.£40
- Playground equipment to make playtimes more active.£800
- Thursday active outdoor session for science with additional T.A.£530
- 1 assembly each half term devoted to healthy lifestyles.£120
Total spend £16,355
Intent and impact
We discussed how to spend our sports funding with our pupils. They felt we should put a large investment in swimming, for safety reasons as we are on the coast and near rivers and lakes and also because there are local swimming facilities so this will be sustainable as the pupils mature and may decide themselves to swim regularly . We also feel that swimming gives children excellent exercise for physical health with less risk of injury. In addition all pupils can participate in the session and unlike some other ball sports, like football…all pupils participate rather than having a number of pupils “hanging back”, or “never being passed to.”
We feel this has been successful as all of the 8 yr 6 pupils last year were able to swim competently, confidently and proficiently over a distance of at least 25 metres. All of them also received the certificate for being able to use a range of strokes effectively and perform safe self-rescue in water based situations.