Pupil Premium Strategy

We use our Pupil Premium to enable the most disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils within the Borough to access elements of the curriculum that they may have missed due to exclusion or poverty. We look at individual interests and tailor our provision accordingly. Our rationale for this is simple - our pupils have arrived from a wide variety of settings and may have been excluded from education for long periods - and so we try to find in-roads to allow them to trust and most importantly, try new things.

The main barriers to learning for our pupils are both their extreme behaviours and low self esteem. Our pupils will have extensive breaks within their early education, which results in heightened anxieties in all areas of learning.

Pupil Premium Allocation 2021/22

This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium for the 2021 to 2022 academic year) funding to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged pupils.

It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year.

Our plan focuses on developing key identified areas of literacy, successful playtimes and increased understanding of the influence of sport on mental health. All provision is evidence based and has been proven to have a positive influence on our pupils.

Intended Outcomes

• pupils will be able to learn methods for self regulation during unstructured times so that playtime and then learning will be successful
• pupils targeted interventions will ensure that they are accessing the curriculum and making the progress they need

We will track this via our tracking systems in-house and this data is available for scrutiny.

Outcomes from last years strategy

• the playground intervention strategy had a hugely positive impact upon pupils behaviour and successful return to class. Pupils returned ready to learn and those who were deregulated were able to return to class very promptly. Our end of year data shows that the impact was significant.
• some of our parents have huge issues with uniform (in some cases they have had so many changes of school that they have accrued spare uniform that is of little use). Taking the financial pressure from parents enabled them to buy into the school and allow us to support them in a clear and concrete way.
• therapeutic input was partially successful and has been re-evaluated this academic year. We have chosen to continue with our music therapy as this has had a clear impact whereas our pupils (many of whom have had unsuccessful interventions with CAMHS) found some therapeutic elements overwhelming. We now have a different set of interventions and these are being led by in-house qualified staff and we hope to see a greater improvement within the coming year.

Pupil Premium Allocation 2020-21

The main barriers to our super heroes attainment/achievement are complex:

• Trauma/Anxiety which manifests in deregulated behaviour
• Suspension (both fixed term, internal and 'soft')
• Mis-diagnosis or delayed diagnosis
• Mental Health

We understand that for our super heroes to begin to engage with more formalised aspects of the curriculum and to feel comfortable to show what they can and cannot do, we have to unpick their anxieties and make them feel safe.

As a school, we have looked at our behavioural and academic data to analyse where we need to support our super heroes further:

Lunch Time Intervention: we have run this programme - adjusted according to cohorts for some time. It has a powerful effect on improving the social skills of our super heroes - learning to share, take turns, except loss etc as well as give them the opportunity to let off steam in a controlled environment. This work fits within all our school processes and reinforces our Zones of Regulation and other therapeutic work.

The data we hold about the success of this work from previous years makes us secure in continuing to adjust and improve it for the current academic year.

We are ensuring that there is a continued reduction of 4's at break times, with super heroes using their skills and Zones of Regulation work to attain 2's and 1's throughout.

Therapeutic Intervention: as a specialist school, we use a variety of interventions, both academic and therapeutic to support our super heroes within their learning. We have allocated our funding to part support psychotherapy, SALT, trauma informed practice, art as well as to purchase additional resources for targeted maths and literacy interventions.

We have trained staff to ensure that the interventions are targeted correctly. Progress will be tracked, recorded and discussed at all levels so that we can adjust the input required. We believe that the variety of work available will be able to reduce anxiety levels and improve attainment.

School Uniform: we feel it is vital that our super heroes feel that they belong. Parents can sometimes find it a struggle to provide uniform or to find uniform that suits their child's sensory needs. We help with providing uniform that accommodates this, reduces anxiety and ensures everyone feels that they belong.

Outcomes from Previous Allocation:

We were fortunate enough to remain fully open throughout the pandemic, which in turn ensured that our super heroes were able to access (in the main) the intended interventions.

We used our COVID-19 protocols to ensure continuity of provision.

All data relating to these interventions is registered for individual children and we are more than happy to provide this. Please contact either Meic or Neal at the school.