Pupil Premium

What is the Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium is an allocation of funding that is given to us by the government to support children who may be vulnerable to under-achievement. The amount we receive is based on the number of children that we have who are entitled to Free School Meals (FSM) or who are ‘Children in Care’ (CIC). We receive the equivalent of £1320 for every child who is currently in receipt of Free School Meals plus some additional funding that is based on the number of children who have had Free School Meals in the past 6 years but are no longer eligible. As a school, we have a responsibility to report on the progress of children receiving pupil premium; demonstrate how we are using the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) and the impact that it is having on children from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Our Aim

To ensure that children from disadvantaged backgrounds (FSM/CIC) are able to make the same progress as, or better progress, than their peers.

How much Pupil Premium money do we get?

In the academic year 2022/23, our pupil premium allocation will be £138,829

Principles

  • At Horizon Primary Academy, we organise teaching and learning in order to best meet the needs of all our children.
  • We arrange appropriate provision for children from vulnerable groups and for those who may be socially disadvantaged, to ensure that their needs are accurately assessed and met.
  • We aim to support children and families with the social, emotional and behavioural aspects of learning.

Impact

At Horizon we use this pupil premium money to fund some important roles within our school. These roles are focused on raising academic standards especially in English and Mathematics as well as supporting children’s emotional and behavioural needs to enable children to learn more effectively. We also use the money to fund some services so that we can offer our children and their families support far more quickly and without the long delays and paperwork that can occur when we refer to other agencies. A more in-depth breakdown of how we will spend our Pupil Premium Grant this year is below.

Key Barriers to Educational Achievement for Pupil Premium Pupils at Horizon Primary Academy School.

The main barriers to education achievement at Horizon Primary Academy are:

  1. Children are joining the school with low entry levels in speech and language and communication
  2. Reading fluency and engagement with reading – many children eligible for the pupil premium are reluctant readers and do not always engage in reading for pleasure.
  3. Consistent high attendance of our pupil premium children.
  4. Emotional wellbeing, confidence and self-esteem: A large proportion of the children eligible for the Pupil Premium have issues surrounding low confidence, lack of resilience or lack of self- esteem.

Planned Provision for 2022/23:

In our strategy document are details of how we are planning to spend the Pupil Premium this year.These decisions are driven by the needs of the children in the school and utilise our experience.

Click here to view the school's Pupil Premium Strategy Statement for 23/24

Click here to view the school's Pupil Premium Strategy Statement for 22/23

Click here to view the school's Pupil Premium Strategy Statement for 21/22

Click here to view the school's Pupil Premium Strategy Statement for 20/21

Free School Meals and the Pupil Premium

Parents can check eligibility for free school meals through Kent County Councils ‘Education and Children’ service http://www.kent.gov.uk/education-and-children and, if eligible, also gain welcome additional funding for their child’s school, known as ‘Pupil Premium’. If eligible, you are not obliged to accept the free school meals for your child if you wish to make other arrangements, but we do want to encourage applications as the additional funding gained would still benefit education provision at the school.

What the service does for parents:

After entering essential details into the website, the online application process links to the Department for Education system for checking eligibility and gives an immediate ‘yes’ or ‘no’ response, and will notify the school.

This system is being provided to encourage parents to apply and take advantage of free school meals while at the same time increasing the benefit to schools from Pupil Premium funding, a substantial amount of which does not reach schools because not all parents who are eligible apply for free meals for their child.

What the service does for schools:

As the government has now introduced free school meals for all children in Key Stage 1, it is more important than ever for schools to know the number of pupils for whom they can claim Pupil Premium funding. These funds enable schools to take on additional staff and invest in additional equipment, resources and activities to the benefit all children.

To check if your child is eligible for Pupil Premium, please visit -

https://www.cloudforedu.org.uk/ofsm/kent/

For more information on Pupil Premium, please visit –

https://www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and-alternative-provision-settings