Pupil Premium
Our intention is that all students, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, are safe, happy, proud, loving and able to flourish in both their school life and beyond. Our strategy is driven by student need, not labels.
The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support socio-economically disadvantaged students to achieve our intentions for them, including progress for those who are already high attainers. We will define what we consider to be meant by “premium students” and this will encompass our DISADVANTAGED students, but not be limited to them as we consider the full gamut of students facing socio-economic disadvantage and we will work to ensure that they all will receive a broad and balanced curriculum that allows them to make good progress and achieve their highest attainment across the whole curriculum. We recognize that disadvantage affects students in a myriad of ways including marginalisation, lack of cultural capital for schema-building which can often, but not always, be linked to lower levels of oral language and a limited vocabulary. These limiting issues can all lead to negative perceptions of themselves as learners and of their place in school and may have been compounded in the past by experience of lower expectations due to the DISADVANTAGED (and other) label. We will also consider the challenges faced by extremely vulnerable students, such as those who have a social worker, are LAC or Post-LAC and/or are young carers. We will map intersectionality to ensure that the most disadvantaged do not slip through the cracks and instead receive the best care and education. We want our students to have wide and far-reaching aspirations as a result of the knowledge and experiences that we have given them throughout their time at St. Mary’s. The activity we have outlined in this statement is also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.
High-quality inclusive teaching is the keystone of our strategy, with a focus on key curriculum areas in which disadvantaged students require the most support. High Quality Inclusive Teaching is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged students in schools “Good teaching is the most important lever schools have to improve outcomes for disadvantaged students.” - EEF. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged students’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.
Pupil premium strategy statement
This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium for the 2022 to 2023 academic year) funding to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged students (2022-2025).It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year and the effect that last year’s spending of pupil premium had within our school.
School overview
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Detail |
Data |
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School name |
St. Mary’s Catholic High School |
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Number of students in school |
1564 (Y7-13) at 05.12.22. 1304 (Y7-11) at 05.12.22. |
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Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible students |
16.75% (Y7-13) 20% (Y7-11) |
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Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers (3-year plans are recommended) |
2022/23 – 2024/25 |
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Date this statement was published |
December 2022 |
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Date on which it will be reviewed |
July 2023 |
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Statement authorised by |
Denise Maxwell Brahms, Headteacher |
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Pupil premium lead |
Emma Meredith, Senior Assistant Headteacher |
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Governor / Trustee lead |
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Funding overview
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Detail |
Amount |
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Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year |
£256760 |
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Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year |
£71760 |
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Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable) |
£0 |
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Total budget for this academic year If your school is an academy in a trust that pools this funding, state the amount available to your school this academic year |
£328520 |
Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan - Statement of intent
Our intention is that all students, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, are safe, happy, proud, loving and able to flourish in both their school life and beyond. Our strategy is driven by student need, not labels.
The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support socio-economically disadvantaged students to achieve our intentions for them, including progress for those who are already high attainers. We will define what we consider to be meant by “vulnerable students” and this will encompass our DISADVANTAGED students, but not be limited to them as we consider the full gamut of students facing socio-economic disadvantage and we will work to ensure that they all will receive a broad and balanced curriculum that allows them to make good progress and achieve their highest attainment across the whole curriculum. We recognise that disadvantage affects students in a myriad of ways including marginalisation, lack of cultural capital for schema-building which can often, but not always, be linked to lower levels of oral language and a limited vocabulary. These limiting issues can all lead to negative perceptions of themselves as learners and of their place in school and may have been compounded in the past by experience of lower expectations due to the DISADVANTAGED (and other) label. We will also consider the challenges faced by vulnerable students, such as those who have a social worker, are LAC or Post-LAC and/or are young carers. We will map intersectionality to ensure that the most disadvantaged do not slip through the cracks and instead receive the best care and education. We want our students to have wide and far-reaching aspirations as a result of the knowledge and experiences that we have given them throughout their time at St. Mary’s. The activity we have outlined in this statement is also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.
High-quality inclusive teaching is the keystone of our strategy, with a focus on Maths, Spanish, PE, Computing, RE and Geography curriculum areas in which disadvantaged students require the most support. High Quality Inclusive Teaching is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged students in schools “Good teaching is the most important lever schools have to improve outcomes for disadvantaged students.” - EEF. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged students’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.
Our strategy is also integral to wider school plans for education recovery, notably in its targeted support through the National Tutoring Programme and school-led tutoring for students whose education has been worst affected, including non-disadvantaged students.
Our approach will be responsive to a range of diagnosed, identified and both data-evidenced and research-evidenced common challenges but also will consider individual needs and circumstances. It will not rely on assumptions about the impact of disadvantage. The strategies and approaches that we are using work together to ensure that our students flourish.
To ensure they are effective we will:
- ensure disadvantaged students are challenged in the work that they’re set
- act early to intervene at the point that need of any kind is identified
- adopt a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged students’ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve
- evaluate with all stakeholders on a regular basis
- review data and evidence and use it to diagnose, recognise issues and improve
Addressing Educational Disadvantage in Schools and Colleges: The Essex Way, Ed: M Rowland, 2021
Challenges - This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged students.
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Challenge number |
Detail of challenge |
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1. |
The data shows that, for the 2022 GCSE results and the current Y11 predictions (based on Y10 summer data) for results in 2023, there are 11 subjects with significantly negative residuals for DISADVANTAGED students. These subjects are Computing, Drama, English, English Literature, Food prep and nutrition, Geography, History, maths, PE, Photography and Spanish and KS3-5 will be a focus along with transition to ensure that provision for all Premium students is the best it can be. |
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2. |
NGRT reading tests show that suspected literacy gaps are real: Compared with all Y7-11, there is an eleven-month gap in average reading ages. Students with greater than a three-year gap to age are classified as “red-readers”. The gaps show variations across the Y7-year groups and indicate disproportionate numbers of DISADVANTAGED in the red-reader categories.
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3. |
The strategy has made some inroads over the last year but literacy remains a priority.
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4. |
Self-regulation – emotion and mental health impact upon our students’ ability to learn and their resultant behaviours impact upon other students’ ability to learn. The Premium Student team (including the school counsellor and EFT therapist) has a strong mental health focus but their case load was full by the middle of September and there are more students requiring assistance daily. The DISADVANTAGED students make up a disproportionate amount of the caseload. The DISADVANTAGED cohort make up a disproportionate number of mental health referrals and in the year 21-22 there were an oncreasing number of students with suicidal ideation or planning, that has continued to rise into 22/23.. Mental health issues are impacting upon students’ abilities to stay in classrooms all day and this emotionally based school avoidance is showing as internal truancy as well as persistent and severe absence. Succeeding academically relies on good attendance.
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5. |
Parental engagement -- Covid shutdowns increased the engagement of many of the more vulnerable DISADVANTAGED students’ parents due to many visits and weekly phone calls, provision of digital hardware, food parcels, electricity meter payments etc. For some of those parents, engagement has continued but for many it has reverted back to pre-pandemic times and indeed declined. They are a vital part of the learning journey for vulnerable students. The cost of living crisis is hitting hard with our community and parental engagement is vital.
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Aspirations and future-thinking have taken a hit as a result of the pandemic. Two NEETS (as of October 2022) were both PP. Intensive planning through 2021/22 has reduced this number from a predicted 12 and this intense work will continue. |
Intended outcomes
This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.
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Intended outcome |
Success criteria |
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Improve the progress among disadvantaged students across the curriculum and close the gap between them and their disadvantaged peers. Closure of the gaps across the 5 identified subjects.
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Reduced P8 gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students in all subject areas. Increased average P8 figures for disadvantaged students. The eleven identified subjects to significantly close the gaps towards zero and do this consistently across all three key stages. |
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Increased routes into P16/ decline in NEETS for all disadvantaged students To raise the aspirations of all disadvantaged students through quality CEIAG and strategic use of RONI data.
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Destinations data shows that there is a decline in the number of NEETS overall. Destinations data shows that all disadvantaged students have started an aspirational pathway at P16. Decline in proportion of DISADVANTAGED present in lowest point scores |
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Literacy Increase in reading competence and comprehension such that gaps between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students narrow across KS3 and KS4.
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Improved P8 figures for all year groups as evidence by internal data and at KS4 as evidence by external data. NGRT tests show a closure of gaps between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged reading ages to less than 6 months in each year group in the first year. Greater opportunities for extended reading as evidenced in lesson observations and schemes of work. Numbers in Red reader groups are proportionate to the numbers in disadvantaged groups.
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Increase and sustain the increases in attendance for disadvantaged students. Decrease in PA for all students and a decrease in the proportion of disadvantaged students with PA.
Decrease in the number of exclusion incidences for disadvantaged students. Decrease in the number of disadvantaged students being excluded.
(Girls-at-risk-of-exclusion-Agenda-briefing-September-2021.pdf (weareagenda.org))
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Sustained high attendance such that by 2024 the overall absence rate for all students being no more than 4% and the gap between disadvantaged students and non-disadvantaged students being reduced by 50%. By 2024 exclusion rates of DP students to have no more than 5% gap with non-disadvantaged students and the numbers of incidences to have reduced to at least the same margins. The rising number of female suspensions will stop rising in 2023 and come back in line with males in 2024 through a range of inclusion strategies.
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Greater mental health and wellbeing provision for all students, especially disadvantaged students. Correct signposting for students with emerging issues. Parental engagement and education such that they can better support their children,
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Students and parents have a range of proactive materials to enable early targeting and self-help. Time2Talk is well-attended and pupil voice reports that it signposts on when necessary. Early identification through greater awareness through wider understanding of the universal offer. Wide range of services with relationships with school (including and beyond TRime2Talk) allowing for ease and speed of access |
Activity in this academic year
This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) this academic year to address the challenges listed above.
Teaching (for example, CPD, recruitment and retention)
Budgeted cost: £190,000
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Activity |
Evidence that supports this approach |
Challenge number(s) addressed |
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Associate Assistant Headteacher for Literacy, form time programme, disciplinary literacy CPD, GL assessments undertaken DP Lead with a focus on attendance and well-being to remove the barriers to the classroom; particular focus on ensuring food available in a mentoring environment, parental engagement through provision of basic needs where cost of living is making prohibitive |
Maintain the focus on literacy through the funding of the associate Asst Head role. GL Assessment Read All About It, 2020 https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit Combining big “winners” of mentoring, parental engagement and meal provision in targeting attendance. https://d2tic4wvo1iusb.cloudfront.net/documents/pages/Attendance-REA-report.pdf?v=1669908817 |
1, 2
3, 4, 5
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Teaching and learning HQIT Think First, Think Twice Literacy - cost of canon, training, reciprocal, NGRT costs, phonics Sisra training for all and especially targeted at the 5 subjects HOW to metacog etc CPD programme Staff library Maths and Others leads TA provision and training |
Good teaching is the most important lever schools have to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. Using the Pupil Premium to improve teaching quality benefits all students and has a particularly positive effect on children eligible for the Pupil Premium. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/public/files/ Publications/Pupil_Premium_Guidance_iPDF.pdf There is a significant correlation between student reading ability and eventual performance across all subjects at GCSE, which is just as strong in maths and sciences as it is in arts subjects. GL Assessment Read All About It, 2020 https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit Literacy is key to learning across all subjects in secondary school and a strong predictor of outcomes in later life. • Disciplinary literacy is an approach to improving literacy across the curriculum that emphasises the importance of subject specific support. • All teachers should be supported to understand how to teach students to read, write and communicate effectively in their subjects. • School leaders can help teachers by ensuring training related to literacy prioritises subject specificity over general approaches https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/literacy-ks3-ks4 Supporting every pupil to succeed academically is a significant challenge for teachers and teaching assistants. The EEF’s research evidence suggests there is a set of five core practices that can support all pupils |
1, 2, 3, 5, 6
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Targeted academic support (for example, tutoring, one-to-one support structured interventions)
Budgeted cost: £73020
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Activity |
Evidence that supports this approach |
Challenge number(s) addressed |
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Recovery Mentors for mental health and literacy |
There is a great deal of evidence which suggests that non-cognitive skills are as important as cognitive skills in determining academic results, and that children from poorer backgrounds tend to have weaker non-cognitive skills than their better-off peers. A recent meta-analysis suggested that programmes aimed at promoting pupils’ resilience and wellbeing could have a significant impact on academic achievement |
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
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School led tutoring NTP Reciprocal reading training and Implementation Phonics
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Reading comprehension strategies, which focus on the learners’ understanding of written text, are rated as high impact on the EEF Toolkit. Reciprocal reading is a structured approach to teaching strategies (questioning, clarifying, summarising and predicting) that students can use to improve their reading comprehension. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/projects-and-evaluation/projects/reciprocal-reading Small group tuition is most likely to be effective if it is targeted at pupils’ specific needs. Diagnostic assessment can be used to assess the best way to target support. https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit |
1, 2 ,3, 4, 5, 6 |
Wider strategies (for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)
Budgeted cost: £65500
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Activity |
Evidence that supports this approach |
Challenge number(s) addressed |
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Cross curricular offer CfL PD Time to talk Recovery mentor Breakfast club SEMH plan The Girls’ Network?? ReachOut mentoring RETRACE – DBT training Funding for the BASE room SoL Attendance LA Attendance Officer TESS funded one day a week for the year EFT Therapist funded one day a week for the year Funding for experiential learning through co-curricular, music lessons, digital provision through loaned laptop scheme Trips etc Safeguarding and mental health training Use of RONI data |
Promoting an understanding of the link between ACEs and trauma within schools, and provide better access to therapeutic support and more specialist targeted support for those where this link exists State of Child Poverty 2021 report https://buttleuk.org/news/news-list/state-of-child-poverty-2021/ Increasing numbers of girls are excluded from school via a rise in exclusions and also through self-exclusion through school refusal. Mentoring and aspirational coaching, home visits and reducing mental health issues all helping in bringing down exclusion rates. Girls-at-risk-of-exclusion-Agenda-briefing-September-2021.pdf (weareagenda.org) The huge disruption to schooling has affected all children, particularly those from poorer families, with long-term effects on their educational progression and labour market performance. Younger generations have experienced disrupted education and they face a tougher labour market than that seen prior to the pandemic. https://ifs.org.uk/inequality/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/BN-Inequalities-in-education-skills-and-incomes-in-the-UK-the-implications-of-the-COVID-19-pandemic.pdf There is great “importance of robust attendance data tracking and monitoring systems in schools, to address attendance issues. This allows patterns of absence to be scrutinised and then targeted interventions to be put in place. It also allows schools to monitor the effectiveness of any interventions they are putting in place to improve attendance and readjust as necessary. This is far more effective than general approaches to improving attendance” DFE Supporting the attainment of disadvantage pupils brief |
2, 3, 4, 5, 6 |
Total budgeted cost: £328520
Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year
Pupil premium strategy outcomes
This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on students in the 2021 to 2022 academic year.
25 accessed tutoring including 6 non-attenders who had online tutoring at home.
English tutoring outcomes are positive for Y7-9 &11 but less so for Y10 who were less engaged.
8/9 students in Y7 have demonstrably made some progress in areas identified, with 5/9 moving from ‘Working Towards’ assessments earlier in the academic year to ‘secure’ in later units after tutoring had begun. 4/9 students had specific comments made on reports about developing of key skills. Use of correct end sentence punctuation and question and clarify skills seem to have been most successfully improved.
7/9 students in Y8 have demonstrably made some progress in areas identified, with development of correct end sentence punctuation and sentence structures seeing particular improvement for 5 students. 2/9 students have particularly improved in their reciprocal reading skills.
7/9 students in Y9 have demonstrably made some progress in some areas identified, with 5/9 making progress in both reading and writing skills, 1 moving on writing but not on reading and 1 progressing in reading but not writing.
Year 10 students seem to have engaged the least successfully with tutoring – of the 9 students identified, anecdotally 3 have said they feel they have gained in confidence in writing in a more structured or sophisticated way. 4/9 students had report comments that suggest they have made progress in either accuracy of clarity of written expression. However, this is yet to translate to attainment progress in any meaningful way.
Lessons learned – we will undertake our own baselines as well as from the company to get a more accurate tell on information. We have more flexibility this year as to how we do this as the grant has built in more flexibility. English, Maths and Science all have different ideas for how to do this in 22/23. Younger years engage better but older years will benefit so engagement needs further examination.
The five identified subjects showed some improvements in their DP residuals but overall, the gaps in subjects continue to be too big.
Detailed plans were put in place for the predicted NEETS to ensure that suitable pathways in place.
At 25.10.22, two students are NEET, one of whom is not well enough to work. Both are PP students. All other students identified in planning have been catered for using the extensive plans put in place.
Of the 23 identified Red readers in 21-22, 78% made expected or higher than expected progress. The remaining 12% all have identified plans and programmes for 22/23.
Pupil voice from The Girls’ Network showed that the girls involved have reported a growth in confidence and half have seen an improvement in attendance. “I couldn’t have done my Work Experience last year, my mentor has really helped my confidence”
Attendance has been a less successful element so far and so a more robust programme has been identified with additional LA attendance officer time, SOL attendance tracker came on board in the summer term.
The various mental health strategies have had over 200 students go through them with the vast majority being “discharged” due to making good progress.
Work is currently ongoing around assessment of needs and signposting protocols to make these interventions even more effective and to ensure that students are moved onto next steps.
Externally provided programmes
Please include the names of any non-DfE programmes that you purchased in the previous academic year. This will help the Department for Education identify which ones are popular in England
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Programme |
Provider |
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NTP Tutoring |
Equal Education |
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Service pupil premium funding
For schools that receive this funding, you may wish to provide the following information:
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Measure |
Details |
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How did you spend your service pupil premium allocation last academic year? |
N/A |
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What was the impact of that spending on service pupil premium eligible students? |
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Further Information
Use this space to provide any further information about your pupil premium strategy. For example, about your strategy planning, or other activity that you are implementing to support disadvantaged students, that is not dependent on pupil premium or recovery premium funding.
