Pupil Premium

At Christ the King Catholic Voluntary Academy, we recognise the uniqueness and individuality of every one of our students. We recognise each student was created by God as special, incredible beings and that they have individual needs, gifts and talents.

This is particularly important when reflecting on the Pupil Premium and how we support some of the most vulnerable students in our community.

We recognise that each student has a different background, a different set of ‘life circumstances’ and that each child is on a different path in life and has experienced life in a very different way to other students.

Our aims are to work tirelessly to meet the needs of each and every one of our students, but particularly the needs of students in receipt of the Pupil Premium, in order to allow them to be and to achieve the very best that they can, both academically and holistically in their development as young people. We aspire to prepare them to be exemplar citizens as they leave us, go into employment or as they continue their studies at Christ the King Catholic Voluntary Academy or elsewhere.

The Catholic Church operates a ‘Preferential Option for the Poor,’ which means that the needs of those who are financially disadvantaged are met first. This fits perfectly with our attitude to students in receipt of the Pupil Premium and their needs, as we strive to keep them at the forefront of our minds in all situations and to ensure that their needs are constantly being met.

We strive relentlessly to ensure that these young people achieve to the very best of their ability and beyond.

What is the Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium funding is additional funding which is given to schools in order to raise the attainment of the most disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gap between them and their peers. The Pupil Premium is, in the opinion of the government, the best way to try to give students who require additional support, the best start possible in education and in life. This is why schools receive additional funding, on top of main school funding allocation.

‘Diminishing the difference’ ‘Narrowing the Gap’ are often talked about. This phrase refers to the gap in performance at GCSE between students from more advantaged backgrounds and those who are in receipt of Pupil Premium Funding. Nationally, there is a clear divide between these two groups of students, which will be explored in more detail later in this document. There is overwhelming evidence that disadvantaged students achieve and progress at a slower rate than those from more privileged backgrounds:

Children from more disadvantaged backgrounds (17%) are less than half as likely to enter higher education as other children (35%).
The reading skills of the highest-performing 15-year-olds from poor backgrounds are, on average, about two years behind the highest-performing pupils from privileged backgrounds.
Only a quarter of boys from working-class backgrounds take up middle-class (professional or managerial) jobs.
Free School Meal (FSM) students are at least 3 times more likely to be permanently excluded than their peers, twice as likely to have a Special Educational Needs statement and are more likely to change schools. They are also more likely to have literacy and numeracy problems and national research suggests that they are more likely to experience poorer quality teaching

(Source: Closing Gaps in attainment, Robert Hill, Association of School and College Leaders, 2013).

The situation is the same at Christ the King Catholic Voluntary Academy, however, there have been improvements in this area in recent years, as the attainment and progress data later in this document indicates.

Pupil Premium Funding was introduced in April 2011 for any student who has been in receipt of a Free School Meal in the last six years. (This is known as the Ever6FSM measure). This means that a child registered for FSM in the last year of primary school will remain eligible for the premium up to and including Year 11.

The allocations for students are as follows:

Ever6FSM Students (Years 7 - 11)	£1035
Looked After Children	£2,530 (Dependent on successful evidence)
Service Children	£335

How does Christ the King Catholic Voluntary Academy encourage parents to apply for a Free School Meal and therefore the Pupil Premium?

At Christ the King CVA, we adopt several practises in order to encourage parents to take up their entitlement to a Free School Meal, which in turn entitles them to the ‘Pupil Premium.’ These include:

Each time a copy of the school newsletter (CTK News) is produced, a section of the newsletter is dedicated to reminding parents of the opportunity to apply for a free school meal and the benefits of doing so
A half-termly email is sent to all parents to remind them to apply if they are entitled to a free school meal and the benefits of doing so
Ensuring that we communicate with parents at our Transition Evening and reminding new parents of the benefits of applying for a free school meal and therefore the funding

How will we measure the impact of the funding?

We will measure the impact of the funding once per term, where there will be a variety of different forms of quality assurance to complete this task. For example, we will use student voice in the form of questionnaires to identify if students feel that they are being supported effectively, as well as allowing the students to identify what we could do to support them further. We will use data to see if reading ages have been improved through Maths and English intervention, as well as allowing us to track behaviour, attendance and rewards for the students in receipt of this funding. There are a variety of different forms of evidence that we will gather in order to measure the impact of the funding.

When will the Strategy be Reviewed?

The Pupil and Ethos Committee of the Governing Body hold Senior Leaders to account for the effective spending of Pupil Premium funding in half-termly meetings. The attainment and progress data of this cohort is regularly reviewed in these meetings and Governors ensure that disadvantaged students remain at the forefront of the minds of Senior Leaders in school.

Senior Leaders review the strategies employed by the school in termly meetings (three times per year), at the start of the year, setting out the plan for the forthcoming academic year, midway through the year to monitor the impact of the strategies and at the end of the year to complete the end-of-year review of the strategy. All Senior Leaders play their part in this, discussing the strategies employed in detail and analysing their impact. As well as this, ‘Pupil Premium students’ are regularly discussed in all elements of the life of the school. For example, they are regularly discussed in Achievement Leader Meetings regarding attendance and progress, when discussing Teaching and Learning Strategies and in work scrutiny, where there is often a focus on students who are disadvantaged. In all areas of the life of our school community, the impact of decisions and change on this particularly vulnerable group of students is always considered.

The dates for the review of the strategy are:

Week commencing 16 November
Week commencing 15 March
Week commencing 21 June

Pupil Premium Strategy Plan 2023-2024

This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium for the 2023-2024 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 and the effect that last year’s spending of pupil premium had within our school.

Pupil Premium Spending Plan 2023-2024