Pupil Premium

Since 2011, the government has provided additional funding to schools aiming to tackle the disadvantages that some children experience in life. Pupil Premium funding is targeted at children who are entitled to free school meals, children who have been ‘Looked After’ for 6 months or more, and children from families in the armed forces. This funding now includes any child who has been entitled to free school meals in the last 6 years.

Like many schools, we resource provision to overcome barriers to learning and disadvantage from a variety of funding streams, and none are solely funded through Pupil Premium funding. Similarly, we take a more holistic approach to disadvantage or the need for specialist provision, and this is allocated on an individual-needs basis rather than on the basis of Pupil Premium eligibility. However, an analysis of the additional provision the school offers shows that children eligible for Pupil Premium funding are effectively targeted. The school is currently developing a bespoke whole school assessment tracking package, which enables us to evaluate the success of specialist interventions and targeted support, particularly those that might not have a direct or immediate impact on children’s attainment data, such as the involvement of the Family Support Worker.

The school has advanced measures in place to identify barriers to learning for all children, categorised into biological and physical factors (which include pain; hunger and thirst; sleep; significant medical events; and sensory integration), as well as safety and security needs (which include belongingness and love needs; safety needs; behaviour; and attendance). When any of these are a cause for concern, the school has processes in place to address these rapidly, such as fast tracking a referral to sleep, pain or dietetic clinics or working with professionals within or outside school to offer support to children and families.

PE and Sports Premium 

Sport and increased physical activity have long been recognised as important areas to promote through education and beyond. Physical activity and playing sports is beneficial for the health of individuals but also has the capacity to bring communities together. The London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics created increased excitement about sport and inspired many to take up and participate in activities they had never tried before. The government recognised the importance of maintaining that interest and ensuring that the legacy of the Games continued, and so have invested millions of pounds into schools through the PE and Sport Premium. Since 2013 primary schools have been entitled to this funding in order to make additional and sustainable improvements to the quality of PE and sport they offer. 

For more information about the PE and Sport Premium, please click here.  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pe-and-sport-premium-for-primary-schools 

Physical development, which includes PE, swimming, MOVE and Sensory Processing work is vital to the children at Willow Dene. Through participation in PE, our children develop their motor skills and learn how to control their bodies in different and more refined ways, through personalised and engaging activities. They also acquire key values such as respect, co-operation and kindness. Our facilities are highly specialised and have been chosen to meet the wide variety of needs our children have. The PE and Sports Premium has meant that we are able to invest in specific areas we would like to develop as a school that will have long term effects on the health, well-being, learning and development of our children. 

In order to assess the impact of the PE and Sports Premium we are able to reference pupil attainment using our Learning Journey assessment which is recorded using Evidence for Learning, as well as through our Annual Reviews, MOVE assessments and discussions with staff and parents. We are then able to see if there are specific areas that children need to develop and if there are trends throughout the school.