PUPIL PREMIUM

Pupil Premium was introduced by the government in April 2011 as a scheme for providing schools with additional funding to support disadvantaged students.

Free School Meals

Depending on your financial circumstances, your child may be entitled to free school meals. This means that all school meals will be paid for. We offer a wide choice everyday of hot school dinner, vegetarian option, jacket potato or picnic bag. We also have a salad bar for the children to help themselves with. If you think you may be entitled to 'Free School Meals' then please speak to our friendly office staff or you can apply online. The following information may be useful;

How to Apply for Free School Meals

Who is Entitled to Free School Meals?

Free School Meals Government Guidance

Our Pupil Premium Principles

We ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meet the needs of all of the pupils. We ensure that appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups, this includes ensuring that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed.

In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged.

We also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

Pupil premium funding will be allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority classes, groups or individuals.

Our Pupil Premium Provision

Our use of the pupil premium grant will be aimed at accelerating progress and moving children to reaching the end of year key objectives but what we really want is to be able to inspire children and help them grow holistically in a number of ways from their starting points. The range of provision the School and Governors may consider include:

Support to access enrichment activities e.g. music lessons, clubs
Small group and 1:1 support during the school day
Interventions to support the development of social and emotional literacy skills
Support to enable a child to take part in educational school visits
Breakfast 'club' – resources
Staff training
Uniform

Pupil premium resources may also be used to target able children who receive the Pupil Premium funding.

How to Claim Pupil Premium

For help and support with making a claim for Free School Meals and Pupil Premium, please visit West Berkshire Council's Pupil Premium web site or feel free to contact us on 0118 942 7187.

Pupil Premium Parent Leaflet

Pupil Premium strategy 2024–2025

Food Banks

We support our local Food Banks and we can make a referral on behalf of families.

Contact our Family Support Worker for more information.

Our Pupil Premium Offer of Support

The school receives funding for pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium. This is a notional budget that is based on the percentages of pupils in the school that meet this criteria. It is the school's responsibility to use this money to meet the needs of this group of pupils. The school keeps comprehensive records, included in the evaluations of the PPG strategy and records of how support for each child is evidenced. Each child's provision of the use of the pupil premium money will be bespoke and carefully planned to ensure that it is tailored to their needs.

We understand that not all pupils in receipt of pupil premium have the same experiences or needs. We want to make sure that this group of pupils can access academic support that not only allows them to progress but also to gain vital social skills, learning behaviours and allows them to have aspirations that remove any barriers to success.

Our main strategy is our bespoke 'Target Review' tutor sessions, planned together with the pupil and supported by their own teacher. Every other week, each child (regardless of their ability and performance) will receive a 40 minute tutor session to support their learning.

We believe this is effective because;

their teacher knows and understands their learning needs and styles best
the teacher can follow up elements of the session in class to enhance their learning experience
the child is part of the target setting and reviewing process and this improves their learning behaviours, motivation and accountability of own learning and improvement
the child feels valued and encouraged and is able to form long lasting problem solving skills
each child receives support that they need regardless of whether they are below, at or above age related expectations
the child gains confidence in the class as a result of continual coaching and this also brings greater engagement

What a session looks like...

Each session for each child is different and forms part of a learning journey of progress. Children are expected to reflect on their learning and what works best for them in the class. They reflect and work on shared targets and barriers to learning, whilst participating in a two way coaching dialogue guided by staff but led by the child. Initially the child will work on a learning questionnaire to bring out their strengths and weaknesses and this will shape their planned sessions.

We have had all sorts of learning targets from; reviewing and supporting homework or work done in class, engagement and participation in class, supporting and regulating emotions, dealing with task anxiety, concentration, aids for keeping on track, music therapy and many more.

Please ask your child's class teacher what they have been working on.

We are really proud of the amount of different sporting opportunities we provide to our children. We make sure that there is appropriate representation of different groups of pupils in each event and plan ahead to make sure that every child is able to take part, despite disadvantage or barriers.

We offer many clubs and activities during the week and many of these are free. Many of our outside providers who charge for clubs will offer some free places for pupils in receipt of pupil premium. This is managed discretely and by prior arrangement with the family and by the Headteacher.

We have some events that are set up specifically for disadvantaged pupils in order to ensure that their experience is as good as any other pupil and that they build cultural capital. Please see our Sports Premium and clubs page for more infomation.

Our uniform is simple and designed so that cheaper alternatives can be purchased in a range of local and national stores. We are flexible to the needs of families, particularly when children have grown out of clothes/shoes and need to wait to replace them. We have few branded options and they are optional not mandatory. Please see our Uniform page.

Our Re-cycle, Renew and Reuse scheme supports and encourages parents to donate uniform that is no longer needed and swap for nearly new uniform. We ensure that this is able to be done discreetly and are working hard to remove the stigma around pre-loved uniform and promote this as a help to the environment. Please ask the PTA for details.

Clothes recycling scheme - This is a scheme set up by our PTA to support our 're-cycle, re-use, renew' intiative. Parents can recycle old clothes and materials at school in our clothes bin and the school receives money for each full collection that will go to valuable trips, resources and experiences.

The school are happy to support families in receipt of pupil premium with uniform, shoes and other school kit. Please approach the teacher if this is something we can help with.

We understand that it can be expensive to buy books and apparatus for school - we have a swap shop for school supplies and a 'lending library' at the front of the school for parents to help themselves and also donate if they wish to. Children can borrow books from the 'lending library' and bring them back later on.

Food swap shop - We realise that one persons treat is another persons waste. We want to ensure that there is no stigma around the need to stock your food cupboards. If you have bought something (wrapped and untouched) that you have disgarded but someone else might want then please swap it out for something you might like. If you would like the school to make a referral to the 'food bank' we can do this also. Please contact our Family Support Worker (Mrs Syrad) to arrange this - familysupport@longlane.w-berks.sch.uk

'Coats for Kids' - In the office we have a rail of coats for anyone to take for their children. These are donations managed by the PTA to ensure that 'No child goes cold'.

Many of our trips and events are already subsidised and some our free. We only ever ask for contributions towards trips although without the support of those parents who can, we would not be able to partake in everything that we do.

If your child is in receipt of pupil premium you won't automatically get trips and events paid for. However, we are happy to subsidise where we can if you contact us to do so and with our Y6 residential we try to spred the costs for you and can offer discounts subject to discretion from the Headteacher.

We do not ask for any other school costs and we always set out any trip costs at the beginning of the year to give you time to prepare. PTA will often cover the costs of some events for families directed by the Headteacher or who approach them for support so that no child misses out on the fun.

A notional part of our Pupil Premium funding is put towards pastoral support for emotional and social wellbeing. Your child may or may not need pastoral support in their time with us but this is always an option to ensure that we are meeting your child's social and emotional needs when there are bumps in the road.

Our family support worker (Mrs Syrad) is always on hand to provide ongoing support to pupils in school (through the ELSA programme) or to families to provide support for the home. Please see our Children and Family and Wellbeing page.

Support from our PTA

Our PTA are very mindful of all diversity, inclusion and disadvantage. They plan and support around the needs of all of our children and families and take into account affordability, access for all and family circumstances in everything that they do. Our PTA actively and discretely contribute to support pupils who may be at a disadvantage financially or with circumstance. Through charitable donations and profit made from events, they subsidise many school trips and events for everyone.

USEFUL RESOURCES

Our Pupil Premium Strategy Statement

West Berkshire Council Free School Meals & Pupil Premium