Pupil Premium at Tolworth
Pupil Premium
The Department for Education allocates the Pupil Premium Grant to schools. Pupils eligible for this grant are those who, currently or have claimed Free School Meals in the last six years, or who are looked after children.
Aims of funding
The aim of the funding is to remove barriers to learning which may hinder children who fall under the pupil premium category. With these barriers removed, the gap in attainment between pupil premium children and their non-FSM peers should close. The reasons for under achievement can be many and varied. Reasons could include; less support at home, social and emotional difficulties due to complex family situations or attendance and punctuality difficulties. Each child entitled to the pupil premium grant is unique in their situation. Our responses to their need must reflect this and support will be personalised to ensure each child reaches their full potential.
Key initiatives put in place to remove barriers to learning
The progress and attainment of all pupils is carefully tracked and analysed in order to draw conclusions and develop action plans. We also make use of a wide range of educational research in order to decide how best to spend our funding and maximise the opportunities for our pupils.
The pupil premium strategy is a key focus of our school development plan and so has a consistently high profile within the school. At the core of our strategy are ‘quality first teaching practises’ which ensure that lessons meet the needs of each individual learner and the embedding of ‘meta-cognitive’ practises. These two initiatives in particular have led to a more aspirational culture of pupils, who have/or are developing, a growth mind-set toward their learning.
Each year, strategies are reviewed and successful strategies are embedded in the schools practice. Therefore only annual focus strategies appear in any particular pupil premium strategy statement (it is not an exhaustive list of all that we do).