Brimsdown Junior School - Pupil Premium Review 13 February 2015 Joan L Low Background Schools need to carefully ring-fence the funding so that they always spend it on the target group of pupils and never confuse eligibility for the Pupil Premium with low ability, and focus on supporting their disadvantaged pupils to achieve the highest levels. Schools also thoroughly analyse which pupils are underachieving, particularly in English and mathematics, and why. More importantly schools understand the importance of ensuring that all day teaching meets the needs of each learner, rather than relying on interventions to compensate for teaching that is less than good. Research has shown that the Pupil Premium was least effective where the school had a lack of clarity about the intended impact of the spending and spent the funding indiscriminately on teaching assistants, with little impact. Schools did not monitor the quality and impact of interventions well enough, even where other monitoring was effective and did not have a good performance management system for teaching assistants and other support staff. There was also evidence that they did not have a clear audit trail for where the funding had been spent. Evidence base: Interviews took place with the Executive Headteacher , Interim Associate Headteacher and Governors Website information and documentary evidence were explored with regards to spending and activities for Pupil Premium Pupils as well as monitoring and assessment data on outcomes from planned interventions. The key data and SAT’s results for 2014 were examined and discussed as well as looking at the current tracking for all pupils in the school. There were interviews with pupils in the morning and learning walks were undertaken at various points during the day. The Associate Headteacher has produced exemplary paper work to enable close and careful monitoring of Pupil Premium money and individual pupil progress in each class and year group . There was a careful analysis of the progress of pupils , supported by in-depth data analysis, which has started to drill forensically data at class , group and pupil level. There is a comprehensive spending plan for the allocated funding (£415,00).
Brimsdown Junior School - Pupil Premium Review 13 February 2015 Joan L Low Background Schools need to carefully ring-fence the funding so that they always spend it on the target group of pupils and never confuse eligibility for the Pupil Premium with low ability, and focus on supporting their disadvantaged pupils to achieve the highest levels. Schools also thoroughly analyse which pupils are underachieving, particularly in English and mathematics, and why. More importantly schools understand the importance of ensuring that all teaching meets the needs of each learner, rather than relying on interventions to compensate for teaching that is less than good. Research has shown that the Pupil Premium was least effective where the school had a lack of clarity about the intended impact of the spending and spent the funding indiscriminately on teaching assistants, with little impact. Schools did not monitor the quality and impact of interventions well enough, even where other monitoring was effective and did not have a good performance management system for teaching assistants and other support staff. There was also evidence that they did not have a clear audit trail for where the funding had been spent. Evidence base: Interviews took place with the Executive Headteacher , Interim Associate Headteacher and Governors Website information and documentary evidence were explored with regards to spending and activities for Pupil Premium Pupils as well as monitoring and assessment data on outcomes from planned interventions. The key data and SAT’s results for 2014 were examined and discussed as well as looking at the current tracking for all pupils in the school. There were interviews with pupils in the morning and learning walks were undertaken at various points during the day. The Associate Headteacher has produced exemplary paper work to enable close and careful monitoring of Pupil Premium money and individual pupil progress in each class and year group . There was a careful analysis of the progress of pupils , supported by in-depth data analysis, which has started to drill forensically data at class , group and pupil level. There is a comprehensive spending plan for the allocated funding (£415,00). day
ppf-review-report.docx