Pupil Premium

What is the Pupil Premium Grant?
Pupil Premium is an additional sum of money allocated to schools by the Government for children of statutory school age from low-income families who are known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM) in both mainstream and non-mainstream settings; to children who have been looked after in the care of the Local Authority for more than six months and to children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces.

Pupil Premium also acknowledges pupils eligible for FSM at any point in the last six years (known as the Ever 6 FSM measure).

The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

Please click the link to access the Leicester County Council Free School Meals Website:
 www.leicestershire.gov.uk/.../social-care-and-supporting-families/free-school-meals

Pupil Premium Policy and Strategy
Click on the link below to see our current 'Pupil Premium Policy', which provides details about the school’s pupil premium strategy – how we have spent our Pupil Premium funding and the impact it has had on pupils. NB: The policy and the school’s pupil premium strategy is reviewed annually.
 https://orchardprimary.org/policy/pupil-premium-policy

To view the Schools' Pupil Premium Strategy Statement, please click below:
  Pupil Premium Strategy Statement and Impact Report 2023-2024.pdf

In order to close barriers, how has pupil premium money been spent at Orchard Primary School?
We work hard to improve the progress and attainment of all our students. The barriers to learning faced by our pupil premium pupils are the same barriers faced by a large number pupils and so we have taken a decision to treat all pupils as individuals and access their holistic needs whatever ‘group’ they belong to. However, we do consider the progress of all our groups and report specifically regarding pupil premium and non-pupil premium and other significant groups.

Staff have a very clear idea of each student’s individual needs and they try to support them effectively based on those actual and specific needs.  Our pupil premium has therefore been used to either expand existing initiatives or to fund new strategies. We have to keep this under review – if we were not making an impact in a specific area then we need to reconsider and re-focus the spending.

To close the gap between pupil premium and non pupil premium cohorts, we focus on the following:

• Boosting literacy where appropriate
• Improving numeracy levels where appropriate
• Improving attendance to maximise opportunities to engage in learning and make progress
• Providing opportunities to raise pupils self-esteem and confidence, social skills and behaviour
• Helping pupils engage positively in learning, including supporting participation in extra-curricular activities