Pupil Premium

The use of the Pupil Premium Grant is outlined in the Whitby Heath Pupil Premium policy. A breakdown of the identified activities and interventions which are funded through the grant within our school are outlined in our annual expenditure document outlines for 2021/22 and plans for 2022/23.

Identifying Barriers

One of the main barriers identified for the majority of our current eligible pupils is fluency, confidence and accuracy in basic skills within reading/phonics, writing and maths.  Many of our eligible children have gaps in these key skills so are unable to use and apply these in a wider context.

Many of our eligible children enter school with a language deficit which limits their access to key knowledge and skills across the curriculum.  Narrowing the language gap has been a key priority in 2021/22.

We have also continued to prioritise the importance of ensuring all eligible children have full access to a range of opportunities to develop, engage and inspire them as learners; the development of their learning behaviours to become resilient, confident and independent learners by being able to take increasing responsibility for their own learning, health and wellbeing is a further key driver for our work.

Intervention

The work of our Learning Mentors and trained ELSAs, is part funded through the grant. Through these roles, support for our more vulnerable children is given and has proved to have a significant impact in helping children to improve self esteem and confidence and become positive learners.  

As a school we have identified groups of children, which include those in receipt of pupil premium, who benefit from targeted additional academic support specifically in reading, writing and maths. These include children who benefit from additional opportunities be stretched further in their learning. These groups are identified through pupil progress and health check meetings each half term and appropriate programmes/support is identified and reviewed at these meetings.

Support may be through quality first teaching intervention with Teachers or Teaching Assistants who have been trained for the specific interventions led. These may include ELSA, Pathways to Progress, Step Up Maths, Third Space, IDL, 1:1 tuition in Phonics, as well as bespoke programmes of work.

Additional Opportunities