Pupil Premium and Financial Information

The Pupil Premium Grant is an allocation of money that is given to schools to specifically assist children from low income families or other challenging backgrounds.  Schools receive the Pupil Premium funding to help students who are currently eligible for free school meals (FSM), those who have been eligible within the last six years for FSM, looked after children (LAC), post-looked after children and children who have parents serving in the Armed Forces (SC).

The aim of the Pupil Premium funding is to reduce the gap in attainment between Pupil Premium students and non-Pupil Premium students. Schools have the autonomy to spend the funds as they see fit, whilst being fully accountable to both governors and the Government. Schools are required to publish information on their websites on how the Pupil Premium funding is spent and the impact of the funding.

In response to the global pandemic, the government has provided an additional Recovery premium fund to top-up the existing pupil premium grant for the academic year 2022-2024.  This fund carries the same conditions of grant as the pupil premium and has been included in the Pupil Premium strategy statement below.

2021-2024

Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2021-2024 (updated and reviewed Autumn 2023)

Number of students eligible for the Pupil Premium 2023-2024

Year Group Pupil Premium Non-Pupil Premium % of Cohort
Year 7 39 163 19%
Year 8 38 148 20%
Year 9 38 150 20%
Year 10 27 158 15%
Year 11 33 152 18%
Total number of PP Students 175 772 18%

How much has Testbourne been assigned for the 2023‐2024 financial year?

  Total Received (£)
Pupil Premium FSM/Ever 6 121,095
Service Child 9,715
Post LAC 10,120
Recovery premium funding 33,396
Total 174,326

At Testbourne Community School, our Senior Deputy Headteacher has the responsibility for leading and monitoring strategies to reduce the gap in attainment for Pupil Premium students.  Improving the outcomes for Pupil Premium students is a key focus and priority for the whole school.

Historic documents - 2019-2024

PP Strategy Statement 2021-2024
Pupil Premium Development Plan reviewed 2021
Pupil Premium School Development Plan 2019-2021
PP Development Plan 2019-2020

 

Further reading:

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/pupil-premium-guide/
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/evidence-summaries/teaching-learning-toolkit/

Our Senior Deputy Headteacher has the strategic responsibility for leading and monitoring our COVID recovery premium spending.  For further information, please contact admin@testbourne.school.

National Tutoring Programme 2022 to 2023

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP) provides schools with funding to spend on targeted academic support, delivered by trained and experienced tutors and mentors.  There are three routes to providing subsidised tuition: academic mentors, tuition partners and school-led tutoring.  Tuition is subsidised by 60% and schools are expected to fund the remaining 40% through other premia such as the pupil premium or recovery premium.

In 2022-2023, we have utilised this funding to subsidise online tuition in English, Maths and Modern Foreign Languages through the tuition partner, My Tutor.  The funding subsidises tutoring on a 1:3 ratio for up to 106 students. 

The National Tutoring programme complements our in-house intervention programmes, including literacy and numeracy support.  Further information can be found here: Literacy, Numeracy and Catch-up - Testbourne Community School

School-Led Tutoring 2021-2022

The school-led tutoring grant was a ring-fenced grant available to schools to source their own tutoring provision for disadvantaged and vulnerable students who had missed the most education due to COVID-19.

We utilised this grant to provide online tuition in English and Maths via the tuition partner, My Tutor, for 49 students during the summer term 2022.

National Tutoring Programme 2020-2022

The National Tutoring Programme (NTP), in its previous form, was launched in November 2020.  Rather than a standalone grant or a separate fund, NTP was a mechanism by which to access subsidised online tuition for students who were disadvantaged by the pandemic.  Schools were invited to access this subsidised tuition, funding the remaining costs through other premia and the catch-up premium, outlined below.  Over 150 of our students have benefited from online tuition support through this programme.

COVID catch-up premium 2020-2021

The COVID-19 catch-up premium was established to mitigate the effects of the unique disruption caused by coronavirus.  The grant was only available for the 2020-2021 academic year.  Schools could use this funding for specific activities to support students to catch up for lost teaching time over the previous months and to support students to access the curriculum.  This could include accessing the National Tutoring Programme, which is another part of the government catch up package.

Please see our Catch-up spending report 2020-2021 below

Catch-up Premium Spending Report

As part of the national Covid catch up strategy, a discretionary one-off fund was made available to schools who wished to deliver a summer school provision during the school summer holidays in 2021.  The fund was ring-fenced to a summer school provision only.  Monies were released retrospectively via a claim based on actual spending and student attendance.  For full details regarding the conditions of funding please see: Summer schools guidance - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Testbourne Transition Week (Summer School) funding and expenditure 2021:

Total number of students invited: 186 (31 pupil premium)
Total number of students attended: 142 (23 pupil premium)

Breakdown of student attendance:

Mon 23rd August 132
Tues 24th August 131
Wed 25th August 131
Thurs 26th August 124
Fri 27th August 101

 

Expenditure & funding claimed:

Staffing £18,050.66
WiseUp External provider £9360
Resources £219.52
Catering & free school meals £387.50
Total funding claimed £28017.68

 

A total of 142 (75%) of our incoming year 7 students joined us for our five-day Transition Week. Our cohort included 74% of those eligible for free school meals and 71% of those identified as SEND.

The first two days consisted of a rotation of subject sessions, delivered by our TCS teachers.  Students measured speed and distance of their paper aeroplanes in Maths, studied Shakespearean insults in English, completed an experiment in Science, made a pen pot in Design Technology and enjoyed performing in Drama and Music.

The second half of the week was facilitated by Wise UP, an external activity company.  On Wednesday students completed The Hub Challenge, which was a series of 32 team building challenges.  On Thursday and Friday students took part in Archery, an assault course and Bushcraft, including wood whittling, fire starting and shelter building.

Feedback

Feedback from parents was unanimously positive (41 responses)

“We were slightly nervous sending our boys into 'school' during their school holidays, but the experience has been really good for them and they have come out positive each day. From the outside, the week appears to have been well planned, run and organised but as importantly it has given new students a chance to experience the school with just year 7's which is a real help. Thank you for all who were involved.”  

“My son has thoroughly enjoyed it and actually told me more about his days than he has ever done during his years at Primary school, long may that last!”

“Made me feel less worried about him starting in September knowing he has made some new friends and got to know the school.”

“My son greatly enjoyed the whole week. Seemed to be well planned, balanced and a lot of fun for him.”

“My son was excited about starting Testbourne, but due to restrictions never was able to see the school as it would be. We had a tour which was excellently delivered to us, but this allowed him to get a proper grasp on the school and what to expect. He enjoyed every minute of every day this transition week and I think it worked so well that he has made new friends from other schools and not such a big gap to they see them again. He was excited to tell me all he had done and leant each day and the staff he had met.”

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One employee has a gross annual salary in excess of £100,000.