As a church school we are focussed on the whole child and acknowledge that academic achievement and attainment is very important, but it is not the only measure of how we perform as a school, or indeed of all that our children achieve. Our vision statement, based on belonging, believing and becoming ensures that we celebrate all 'good deeds' including academic and non-academic work and encourage the children and adults in our community to look to God to serve others. We are also passionate about being an inclusive school and recognise that children's talents lie in a range of areas, not all reflected in the school league tables and other data sources.  

The Pupil Premium is additional funding given to publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and to close the gap between them and their peers.

It is paid to schools according to the number of pupils who have been:

• - Registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years
• - Have been looked after for 1 day or more
• - Were adopted from care on or after 30 December 2005 left care under:
  • - A Special Guardianship Order on or after 30 December 2005
  •  - A Residence Order on or after 14 October 1991

In the 2021-22 academic year, schools will receive:

• £1345 for children who are eligible for Pupil Premium (eligible for Free School Meals)
• £2345 for children who are eligible for the looked after or previously looked after child Pupil Premium (Pupil Premium+)
• £310 for children who are eligible for the service premium because a parent is serving in the armed forces.

Didsbury CE Pupil Premium allocation for the academic year 2021-22: £35,058

Our Pupil Premium allocation is used to support pupils by:

• Ensuring that all teachers are effective and well-trained ensuring that there is a culture of aspirational learning in all classes – a rising tide lifts all boats.
• Utilising a systematic synthetic phonics programme that gives disadvantaged children who may have less support at home, support to reading via decoding.
• Employing well established intervention programmes in maths and English led by skilled and experienced TAS to support those who are not on target to achieve ARE by the end of the school year.
• Supporting children with behaviour issues to access the curriculum
• Ensuring that teaching and support staff have access to quality CPD in order to support the academic and well-being needs of the children
• Providing booster support groups to enable the application of SPaG understanding to written work
• Expanding the horizons of children with limited experience of real life first hand cultural and sporting opportunities.
• Providing opportunities to support children with social and emotional needs

It is important to realise that Pup[il Premium is not a personal budget that is attached to a child that is eligible for Pupil Premium.  The Department for Education (DfE) strongly advise school to follow Endowment Education Foundation (EEF) research on Pupil Premium when allocating our grant.  The EEF advise three strategies

1 Teaching throughout the school

2 Targeted academic support

3 Wider strategies

You will see that our Pupil Premium spending is set out under those three areas.

The effect of this spending on children is evident in our results which are also included in out Pupil Premium strategy.