Walton on the Naze Primary School is a mixed form entry school in Essex, currently with 199 pupils. We have a Breakfast club which runs daily and many varied after school clubs.

There are 4 schools in the locality; however Walton has the highest deprivation factor by far.

We have high aspirations and ambitions for our children and we are determined to ensure that our children are given every chance to reach their full potential. Pupil premium funding is supporting us in ensuring that all children can, indeed ‘Choose their dream and chase it.’

Although the expectations for all are high, the Pupil Premium Grant helps the school to provide initiatives to narrow the attainment and achievement gap for some.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pupil-premium-effective-use-and-accountability

When making decisions about using pupil premium funding it is important to consider the context of the school and the subsequent challenges faced. There may also be complex family situations that prevent children from flourishing. The challenges are varied and there is no “one size fits all”.

Our key objective in using the Pupil Premium Grant is to narrow the gap between pupil groups.

As a school, through targeted interventions we are working to eliminate barriers to learning and progress.

We continue to analyse our data and have made use of a range of research, such as, good practice in using pupil premium funding and the Sutton Trust toolkit, to inform our decision making.

In addition to this we have identified some key principles (outlined below) which we believe will maximise the impact of our pupil premium spending.

Analysing Data

We will ensure that:

• All staff are involved in the analysis of data so that they are fully aware of strengths and weaknesses across the school, particularly in relation to Vulnerable groups (PDM’s, PPM, PM targets).

• We use research (Such as the Sutton Trust Toolkit) to support us in determining the strategies that will be most effective (E.g. 2:1 provision). We work with other local schools to benchmark and ensure best practice.

Identification of Pupils

We will ensure that:

• ALL staff are aware of who pupil premium and vulnerable children are.

• ALL pupil premium children benefit from the funding, not just those who are underperforming.

• Underachievement at all levels is targeted (not just lower attaining pupils).

• Children’s individual needs are considered carefully so that we provide support for those children who could be doing “even better if...”

Improving Day to Day Teaching

We will continue to ensure that all children across the school receive good teaching, with increasing percentages of good and outstanding teaching achieved by using our Phase leaders to:

• Set high expectations.

• Address any within-school variance.

• Ensure consistent implementation of the non-negotiables.

• Share good practice within the school and draw on external expertise.

• Provide high quality CPD.

• Improve assessment through joint levelling and moderation.

Increasing learning time

We will maximise the time children have to “catch up” through:

• Improving attendance and punctuality.

• Providing earlier intervention (KS1 and EYFS).

• Early morning sessions (Booster and Phonics).

Individualising support

We will ensure that the additional support we provide is effective by:

• Looking at the individual needs of each child and identifying their barriers to learning.

• Ensuring additional support staff and class teachers communicate regularly.

• Matching the skills of the support staff to the interventions they provide.

• Working with other agencies to bring in additional expertise.

• Providing support for parents: to develop their own skills, to support their children’s learning within

the curriculum.

• Tailoring interventions to the needs of the child (e.g. Targeted maths revision sessions in the afternoons for children who struggle in the main lesson, TIP’s, 1:1).

• Providing high quality pastoral and therapeutic support.

Funding Priorities

We continue to use a whole school approach to supporting children in developing their skills as writers though the use of talk and have invested in staff training for the Letters and Sounds phonics programme and additional interventions alongside Collaborative Learning training.

To increase parental engagement in learning, we have created a weekly rolling programme for parents to attend with their child and support their reading We have also brought in more stay and play days as asked for at previous Parent Forums and on feedback.

In order to develop children as Leaders and promote independence, the school will be training new children to become Playground Pals and we have regular class monitors, School Councillors and Year 6 Head Boy and Girl.

It is clear that children who have the chance to sample a variety of experiences perform better; therefore, Walton Primary will endeavour to provide these opportunities for all children. Our Adventure Ambassador began work last year.

The school regularly meets with other schools to discuss and analyse our own cohorts and their progress and attainment.

One of the main foci for 18/19 continued to be Maths Mastery and high-quality maths teaching. This continued to be a key priority for all local schools, with Teach meets and cross school moderation taking place.

As always, one of the most important factors for supporting our vulnerable children has been to provide high quality pastoral and emotional and social support to help remove barriers to learning for specific pupils. This data can be very difficult to quantify, however, all staff have been asked to complete case studies for children, including vulnerable children. Within this, the real impact for the child can be seen, even if this is not measurable educational progress or attainment.

An ongoing focus is also to further increase the percentage of quality of teaching at good or better which has been supported by effective use of the funding for quality CPD, some which took place jointly with other local schools.