Pupil Premium at Stanhope Primary School

2025-2026

The Government provides Pupil Premium funding to all schools. This is in addition to main school funding and its purpose is to help address national inequalities between the achievements of children eligible for free school meals compared to others. The money is provided to ensure that school are able to support these pupils to achieve their full potential. The Government have used pupils who are entitled to Free School Meals (FSM) as an indicator of deprivation and they allocate a fixed amount of money per pupil to schools each financial year based upon the number of pupils who have been registered for FSM at any point during the previous 6 years. An amount of money is also allocated to pupils who are Looked After by the Local Authority (LAC) and pupils who have parent/parents who are serving in the armed forces. The government does not dictate how this money should be spent but we are expected to employ strategies that we are confident will ‘narrow the gap’ in attainment between those pupils who are considered to be deprived and those who are not. We are accountable for this allocation of resources and must demonstrate that pupils in receipt of Pupil Premium achieve well compared to others.

Funding

This current year’s funding is £174,650.

What barriers to learning can our disadvantaged children face?

When we make decisions regarding the use of Pupil Premium funding it is important that we consider the context of the school and the challenges faces by our pupils. We recognise that pupils can experience many barriers to their learning and that these barriers can be long term, short term in order for our pupils to achieve their full potential. Some of the typical barriers experienced by our children include:

• Socio-economic disadvantage i.e. poverty
• Broken family structures and family stress resulting in low resilience
• Attendance and punctuality issues
• Language delays or difficulties in speech
• Parents being unable to support their children at home
• Low confidence and low self-esteem
• A narrow range of experiences and opportunities

Our plan sets out a tiered approach and ensures that the achievement and well-being of children from disadvantaged backgrounds continues to be given high priority on our school. We draw upon guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation (EFF) which promotes a tiered model to improvement that focuses on high quality teaching, targeted academic support and wider strategies to address barriers to learning.

Tier 1: There is no doubt that high quality teaching remains the most important tool that schools have in improving outcomes for pupils. Providing high quality teaching for all pupils is the priority of our school. We ensure that every class has a highly effective teacher that is being supported through a continuous professional development process.

Tier 2: Providing targeted support for vulnerable pupils to close the attainment and progress gap. Alongside high quality teaching, there should be one to one and small group tuition targeted at those pupils who need it the most. These interventions need to be lined to the content of the daily lessons to support pupils in accessing the curriculum for their cohort.

Tier 3: Developing strategies that address the full range of non-academic barriers to success in school attendance, social and emotional support and opportunities for other enrichment experiences.

Pupil Premium Strategy