What is the Pupil Premium Grant?

The pupil premium grant is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England. It’s a school-level grant that gives schools extra resources to help them meet challenges, including those arising from deprivation. In the 2024 to 2025 financial year, schools will receive £1050 for each student registered as eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last 6 years.

What is our rationale for the Pupil Premium Grant?

• Improve the academic outcomes of disadvantaged students of all abilities
• Close the attainment and progress gap between disadvantaged students and their peers
• Identify and implement strategies that help to increase social mobility
• Enhance students’ cultural literacy and wider enrichment opportunities

What barriers do pupils eligible for the Pupil Premium Grant face?

The barriers and challenges disadvantaged students face are complex and varied - there is no single difficulty faced by all. Closing the attainment gap between disadvantaged children and their peers is the greatest challenge facing schools. The gap is stubborn because it’s causes are entrenched and complex, and most lie beyond the control of schools and educators. However, it is clear that schools can make a difference.

Mission statement:

NHS is committed to ensuring every student eligible for the pupil premium benefits via this additional funding and is in no way disadvantaged when compared to their peers. As a matter of policy, the school aims to address any underachievement by ensuring ‘quality first teaching’ in all lessons and the generality of the school budget is used to maximise this.

We aim to:

• Draw on research, best practice in and evidence from our own experience to direct funding to a school offer that is most likely to maximise achievement
• Never confuse eligibility for the Pupil Premium with low ability, and focus on supporting our disadvantaged students to achieve the highest levels
• Minimise potential barriers to learning and thereby maximise progress and achievement
• Advantage the most disadvantaged students thorough whole school and sometimes more targeted offer
• Ensure all students eligible for the pupil premium make excellent academic progress and achieve beyond expectation
• Ensure there is transparency, through our reporting mechanisms, to demonstrate how and why this funding has been spent
• Ensure we recognise that not all students who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals and reserve the right to allocate the pupil premium funding to support any student or groups of students the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged
• Ensure parents of disadvantaged children understand they can make a positive contribution to their children’s achievement at NHS by working alongside the school in harmony and recognising that parent involvement makes a difference.