Detail

Data

School name

St Thomas’ Catholic Primary School

Number of pupils in school

210

Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible pupils

21%

Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers

2023/2024 to 2024/2025

Date this statement was published

March 2024

Date on which it will be reviewed

December 2024

Updated Feb 22, March 23, March 24

Statement authorised by

Lisa D’Agostini,

Headteacher

Pupil premium lead

Verity Hill

Governor / Trustee lead

Martin Vye, SEN/Pupil Premium Governor

Detail

Amount

Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year

£60,525

Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year

£

Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable)

£0

Total budget for this academic year

If your school is an academy in a trust that pools this funding, state the amount available to your school this academic year

£

At St. Thomas’ Catholic Primary School we pride ourselves on having Christ at the centre of all that we do, that we are aspirational for all of our pupils and that we foster within our children the value of togetherness.  With our pupil premium strategy, we aim that all of our vulnerable pupils, regardless of their backgrounds and the challenges that they face, will achieve well across the entire curriculum and will fulfil their potential.

At St. Thomas’ we will always consider the needs of those who are young carers or supported by an early help or social worker regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.

At the heart of all that we do is high quality teaching, focusing upon the areas that our disadvantaged pupils require the most support in.  We have found that this approach has the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school.  It is our intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.

St. Thomas’ approach intends to respond directly to both individual’s needs as well as challenges common to many.  We do not make assumptions about the members of our school community who are disadvantaged; instead, we carefully examine the evidence before us and act accordingly.  We ensure that our whole school ethos means that:

• all disadvantaged pupils are challenged in the work that they’re set
• we act early to intervene at the point where need is identified
• implement a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve

Challenge number

Detail of challenge

1

Within our school we have, via a variety of assessments and observations, identified that our disadvantaged pupils have underdeveloped and limited language skills as well as a limited vocabulary.  This can been seen from Foundation Stage all the way through to Year 6.

2

Pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds have been identified to have weakened knowledge of phonics in comparison to their classmates, which in turn negatively impacts them as readers.

3

In school data, assessments and observations, book scrutinises and talking with pupils shows us that those in receipt of pupil premium funding have lower levels of writing than that of their peers.

4

Lockdowns and school closure due to the pandemic have negatively affected our disadvantaged pupils to a greater extent than that of their peers which has led to both gaps in learning as well as loss of confidence in their abilities as a learner.

5

There has been a rise in need for emotional support for pupils within our community and this has been seen more so in our disadvantaged children than those without this additional hardship.

Intended outcome

Success criteria

Improved language skills and a wider vocabulary among our disadvantaged pupils.

Our assessments and observations will indicate significantly improved language among disadvantaged pupils. This is evident when triangulated with other sources of evidence such as, looking at engagement in lessons, book scrutiny and formative assessment.

Improved phonic knowledge and reading ability among our disadvantaged pupils.

We aim that phonic screening data at Year 2 as well as reading outcomes at the end of KS2 will  show that all of our pupils will meet at least the expected standard.

Improved attainment in writing among our disadvantaged pupils.

We aim that KS2 data will show that all of our pupils will meet at least the expected standard.

Improved engagement and confidence in learning among our disadvantaged pupils.

Pupil voice, engagement in lessons, planning and book scrutiny will show that gaps have been filled and engagement in learning raised.

Improved wellbeing among our disadvantaged pupils.

Pupil and parent voice alongside staff interviews will give us the evidence to see the impact of this approach. 

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Teacher employed to work alongside our disadvantaged children to ensure gaps across all areas are plugged and filled.

Bespoke teaching and catch up/intervention programmes have a positive impact upon pupils learning and engagement in learning.

1,2,3,4,5

Purchase of Lesley Clarke Synthetic Phonics to secure stronger phonics teaching for all pupils.

Phonics approaches have a strong evidence base that indicates a positive impact on the accuracy of word reading (though not necessarily comprehension), particularly for disadvantaged pupils:

Especially designed intervention programme Phonics 10 to plug identified gaps

2,3

Rewriting and implementing a whole new, bespoke curriculum that tailors to the experiences and needs of all of our pupils but with a special emphasis upon our disadvantaged learners.

Writing and delivering a curriculum that is relevant and ambitious will not only engage all of our learners but will also make them ambitious for their own futures.  

1,2,3,4,5

Purchase of Lexia

Using a proven and engaging programme will ensure that reading and therefore English levels and understanding will rise that can also be used at home. 

1,2,3

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Purchase of targeted programme to identify and support those with limited vocabulary and poor oral skills

Correctly identifying a specific need and then using the correct support from specialists is the way to have a positive impact.

1,

Purchase of a targeted programme for those with weaker phonic skills

An Educational psychologist led approach to strengthening phonic skills

2, 3

Additional phonics sessions targeted at the disadvantaged pupils who require further phonic support.

Targeted learning, tailored to individual need has a greater impact as it focuses upon the needs of the individual

2,3

Purchase of 3^rd Space Learning

Targeted individual tutoring form a proven and engaging programme to ensure catch up progress made.

2,3,4

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Solihull parenting group to be run targeting the parents of our disadvantaged pupils.

The Solihull approach is renowned for supporting children’s emotional well being and enabling parents to be supported alongside them.

5

Purchase Book in a Box so that our disadvantaged pupils have access to high quality texts which might otherwise be denied to them

Book in a Box is there to support our children with their reading and language acquisition.

2,3

Contingency fund for issues that will arise throughout the year so that they can be addressed immediately.

We are aware that we cannot foresee every eventuality and so need to be able to act immediately to address needs when the arise

1,2,3,4,5

Mindfulness sessions

Our children will need to be ready to learn and able to cope with all of the challenges that life will throw at them. This is especially true of our disadvantaged children and mindfulness will help them develop the tools that they will need to achieve this. 

1,2,3,4,5

Residential

All of our children need to be able to play a full role and part in every aspect of school life, especially when it comes to celebrating the end of their time at our school. 

1,2,3,4,5

Our own data and internal assessments show that in maths 85% of children from disadvantaged backgrounds at the end of KS2 in the academic year 2020/2021 we were working at the expected standard or above.

Our own data and internal assessments show that in reading 86% of children from disadvantaged backgrounds at the end of KS2 in the academic year 2020/2021 we were working at the expected standard or above.

Our own data and internal assessments show that in writing 85% of children from disadvantaged backgrounds at the end of KS2 in the academic year 2020/2021 we were working at the expected standard or above.

We are very aware that disruptions in learning since the pandemic hit has had a negative impact upon the learning, progress and emotional wellbeing of many of our disadvantaged children and we worked hard to mitigate this by having many 1:1 live learning session across TEAMs in the January lockdown.  We also we rigorous in tracking the engagement of our disadvantaged learners and following up absences with additional live learning sessions.