Pupil Premium / FSM

Free School Meals (FSM)

The Academy ensures parents/carers check their eligibility for FSM. We also assure parents that all matters regarding use of this fund are treated with discretion and in confidence.

Pupil Premium Grant (PPG)

The coalition government introduced the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) in September 2011 with the purpose of increasing attainment and aspiration for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, specifically;

• To increase social mobility
• To enable more students to go to the top universities
• To reduce the attainment gap

Venturers’ Academy receives a Pupil Premium Grant for each child who is entitled to receive Free School Meals or who has been entitled over the last six years, and for Looked After Children.  The Academy is allowed to allocate the funding as it sees fit in order to meet the aims above and are held accountable for the impact of this funding.

How the Academy spends the Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) to maximise achievement

• Carefully ring-fencing some of the funding for individualised support
• Drawing on research evidence (such as the Sutton Trust toolkit) and own evidence
• Understanding the importance of ensuring that all day-to-day teaching meets the needs of each student, rather than relying on interventions to compensate for teaching that is less than good
• Deploying highly trained Teaching Assistants who understand their role in helping students
• Appointing a Designated Senior Leader who has a clear overview of spending and interventions
• Ensuring that teachers and Teaching Assistants know which students are eligible for the PPG so that they can take responsibility for accelerating their progress
• Having a clear policy on spending the PPG agreed by Governors and outlined on our website.    

Literacy and Numeracy support – the development of good literacy and numeracy skills is a whole school focus. Standardised scores are collected for every student in every year for reading, spelling and numeracy. These are carefully tracked and monitored across the school. Students with low literacy and numeracy levels are provided with additional support so that basic skills can be developed properly. The Pupil Premium funding is used to meet individual needs in order to remove this barrier to learning.

Targeted support – tailored individual support is provided across the curriculum and arrangements are made via Multi Disciplinary Team interventions for resources to be available for each student as needed. Staff take responsibility for determining the additional resources that students need in order to achieve well. Appropriate requests for resources are met quickly so that students can make the quickest possible progress.

The full range of educational experiences – support is given to ensure that all students have full access to broad educational experiences, such as residential courses, competing in sporting and attending cross curricular themed days.

Good attendance – staff, teachers, parents, carers and students understand the link between attendance and achievement. Attendance levels for all students are checked daily and acted upon. Systems are in place to make early identification of issue and need.

Good facilities for supported self-study – the Academy considers this to be vital in order to even-out many of the barriers that students who are eligible for free school meals may face.