We were proud to receive a letter from David Laws MP in January 2015, highlighting the success we have had at supporting disadvantaged pupils. He wrote:

‘It gives me great pleasure to write to you and congratulate your school on the improvement in key stage 2 results of your disadvantaged pupils since 2011. Your results show that you have improved in terms of progress and attainment achieved by your disadvantaged pupils since 2011, and that you are increasingly effective in educating your disadvantaged pupils. It is clear that you and your staff have provided your disadvantaged pupils with a good start in life and prepared them well for secondary school.’

We recognise that success in life is not a simple matter of being able to read, write and do sums. To be successful at school as well as in later life, you need more than just academic skills. You need qualities such as self-confidence, resilience, teamwork and communication…to name but a few. Therefore, we take a holistic approach to the use of pupil premium funds, using it not just to support children academically but to foster their social and emotional skills also.

We have held meetings with parents and staff to canvass opinion on how the needs of our children eligible for PPG funding might be best met.   All parties agreed that our children face a multitude of barriers to success including: confidence, friendship groups, cultural capital, language…since all children are unique, there are as many potential barriers as there are children. We agreed that although academic provision was important for our disadvantaged children, that their barriers to success might also be overcome through activities such as: art, sport, or going on an outdoor adventure weekend.

At Jubilee, we work hard to analyse and review all children’s barriers to learning and have employed additional teaching and support staff to put provision into place that meets their learning needs. These additional teachers focus on pupil premium children’s attainment and we have dedicated meetings to review pupil premium children’s progress. We have also used pupil premium funds to pay towards the cost of dedicated music and sport teachers at the school, since we recognise the impact these activities can have on a pupil’s resilience, team work and self-belief – barriers often identified among our pupil premium pupils. Equally, we use pupil premium funds to help us employ a learning mentor and a behaviour mentor who are dedicated towards giving pastoral support, principally to pupil premium grant children.

If you would like to know how we spend our pupil premium funds, please see our Pupil Premium Report on our Policies page which is reviewed annually each Autumn.