Alexandra School Pupil

Premium Report

Summer 2020 – actual

spending and Impact

2019-20

At Alexandra School, all pupils are entitled to equal

opportunities to become their best selves. This doesn’t always

mean that all children need the same provision. But we do

have a responsibility to scaffold learning in the best way we can

for our children, and ultimately break down the barriers that

may prevent progress.

Pupil Premium Actual Expenditure and Impact in 2019-2020

Alexandra School supported 27 children on roll during 2019-20 who were eligible

for Pupil Premium funding. We received £1,320 to support each of these children to

‘close the attainment gap between them and their peers’, to raise attainment to help

children reach as much potential as possible, both academically and socially.

We received an average of £1300 for Looked After Children.

In total our pupil premium budget amounted to approximately £37520. We have the

capacity to apply for additional funding (up to a total of £1900) for LAC and PLAC. This

is something we consider very carefully and link to individual needs. Potentially, this

increases the pupil premium budget to a total of £39920.

Pupil Premium is the additional funding given to schools and academies to raise the

attainment of disadvantaged pupils and ‘diminish the difference’ between themselves

and their peers.

Provision Actual cost and aim of provision

Impact

Play therapy 1 full day of specialist play therapy provision. Continued throughout lockdown period, including through ‘holiday’ periods.

£10,800 £230 therapeutic resources To provide specialist emotional, behavioural and social support to individual children, either through one to one, or group work.

Children in receipt of pupil premium have experienced equal access to therapeutic provision. 20 children in receipt of pupil premium benefitted from therapeutic support for emotional or social reasons during the year 2019-20. All children made measurable steps of progress in their emotional and/or social understanding. In relation to individual children, play therapists were able to contribute meaningfully to annual reviews and learning journeys, reflecting progress made. This work continued throughout lockdown, during which time our therapists provided weekly contact with children and were able to reassure and support

Harrow Horizons’ therapy 1 full day of specialist tier 2/2.5 therapeutic provision. Continued part time throughout lockdown period.

£8250 To provide specialist emotional, behavioural and social support to individual children, either through one to one, or group work. To enhance transition (to High School) work with therapeutic provision.

SDP Target 2019/20 To design and deliver a programme for teaching 11 Habits for Mental Health.

£429 To ensure that our most vulnerable children are provided with rich opportunities to develop the

Work started pre-lockdown and resources bought to support this. Therapeutic work continued through lockdown.

behavioural habits designed to foster positive mental health.

parents and carers. Our play therapist was a core part of some crisis management work in two families, supporting with emotional resilience.

SDP Target 2019/20 To continue to develop our provision for pupils with sensory needs, through training, resources and environment.

£726 £9250 to be rolled over to academic year 2020-21 to contribute to playground projects. Progress on these projects halted due to Covid19. To ensure that all children have access to specialist support as required, to meet their sensory needs and thereby increase their readiness to learn. This will include enhanced OT provision, contribution to playground development and access to appropriate sensory resources in school

Children in receipt of pupil premium have equal access to occupational therapy as and when this support is required. Staff knowledge has been greatly enhanced this year, and resources bought to enable all classes to provide sensory circuits and other individualised sensory diets for children daily in response to need. Observations of children and engagement with families during lockdown has shown that an increased use of sensory circuits in school has been improving pupils’ readiness to learn. Younger pupils, in particular, are settling well in class following engagement with a sensory circuit or other appropriate OT activities.

Basic Needs Breakfast Club Clothing and uniform as and when is deemed a requirement. This section of the budget increased tremendously to accommodate the level of need during the lockdown period and beyond.

£1080 To ensure that children’s basic needs are met.

Staff are quickly alerted to situations where basic needs are not met. Uniform, school shoes, breakfast, food and other essentials have been purchased for children in receipt of pupil premium. During lockdown, the school responded quickly to financial hardship enabling families to access food and basic essentials for their children. Suitable sleeping arrangements and home

learning set ups have been supported by pupil premium, including the purchasing of laptops, wifi hotspots, beds and mattresses, and child sized work desk and chair. Children have shown increased engagement with remote learning as a direct result of resources supplied. Social connections to their peers have been maintained. Families have reported feeling well supported, and staff teams have been able to feel confident that both safeguarding and learning needs are well met at home. The vast majority of children continued to make small steps of progress in their learning during this period of time.

Individual, adaptive equipment where necessary for children in receipt of pupil premium to access the curriculum Contribution towards the purchasing of equipment and resources required to provide a truly broad, inspiring and balanced curriculum Due to the Covid19 crisis, arrangements to secure funding for identified children to access opportunities to engage in out of school clubs or activities were not completed this year.

£356 To ensure that each individual child has any adaptive equipment or resources required to enable them to access the curriculum and develop their interests and talents. This might be in or outside of school.

Touch screen laptop purchased for individual child, enabling her access to the curriculum in a more comprehensive way.

Group or individual Music Tuition (additional to the national curriculum)

£4000 To ensure that all children have equal entitlement to

Children in receipt of pupil premium had equal access peripatetic music tuition. They developed skills and expertise

extra-curricular activities. To ensure that all children are given as many opportunities as possible to ‘find their passion’ and unearth talent!

in this area, impacting on their self-esteem and sense of purpose. Our music tutor was able to contribute to children’s learning journeys. She also helped to maintain a sense of community throughout lockdown, leading remote music assemblies for all children in the school. These music assemblies were often reported as being a highlight of the children’s week.

Brownies

£517 To ensure that girls in receipt of PP have equal access to our new Brownie unit, through the subsidising of subs, uniform and activities. To ensure that our girls, as a minority group at Alexandra School have the opportunity to grow and learn together in an extra-curricular context.

Girls developed leadership skills, grew in confidence, and developed self-esteem. Brownie meetings continued via Zoom throughout lockdown, with the girls taking part in some national initiatives. Attendance at these meetings was high, demonstrating the girls’ sense of belonging.

Family Learning, Early Help Offer provided by school, parent mentoring Covid19 sadly put a large amount of the next steps of this project on hold. Many of the new initiatives were scheduled to start in the Spring term.

£90 £900 to be rolled over to academic year 2020-21 to contribute to developing these initiatives. SDP Target 2019/20 To develop a programme of family learning, early intervention and parent support that complements what is offered by local providers.

Two families were able to attend courses offered by The Centre for ADHD and Autism Support. Appropriate and targeted support has been offered and signposted to our most vulnerable families throughout the year. We hope to widen this offer to include more mentoring support, facilitated play sessions, family learning and parent workshops as we head into 2020-21.

Transport In response to individual needs, and to enable parents to be a full part of school life, transport to and from school

£1,186 To enable all children to attend school safely To engage parents in school

Transport has been provided regularly to support the attendance of one individual pupil. This has enabled him to access learning on site with safe parameters around him.

was supported by this budget.

life and enable attendance at key meetings or school events

Transport has been provided for children in emergency situations, to enable school attendance. Transport has been provided to enable parents to attend meetings or other key school events such as class assemblies or class visits. This has built improving relationships between home and school and has contributed to the building of children’s self esteem.