Pupil Premium
Pupil premium strategy statement
This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium for the 2022 to 2023 academic year) funding to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged pupils.
It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year and the effect that last year’s spending of pupil premium had within our school.
SCHOOL OVERVIEW
| Detail | Data |
|---|---|
| School name | Bexley Grammar School |
| Number of pupils in school |
1023 (Years 7-11) |
| Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible pupils | 5% of the Y7-11 cohort |
| Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers |
3 year plan covering Sep 2023 - Aug 2026 |
| Date this statement was published | September 2023 |
| Date on which it will be reviewed | September 2024 |
| Statement authorised by | Hugh Gilmore, Headteacher |
| Pupil premium lead |
Adam Skinner, Assistant Headteacher |
| Governor / Trustee lead |
Moyra Pickering, Link Governor for Disadvantaged / PP |
FUNDING OVERVIEW
| Detail | Amount |
|---|---|
| Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year | £50,204 |
| Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year | £12,144 |
| Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable) | £0 |
| Total budget for this academic year | £62,348 |
Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan
Statement of intent
Our intention is that all pupils, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, make good progress and achieve high attainment across the curriculum.
The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve this goal. We will consider the challenges faced by vulnerable pupils and the activity we have outlined in this statement is intended to support their needs too, regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.
High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach as this is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ progress will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers. Our approach will be responsive to common challenges and individual needs.
Challenges
| Challenge Number | Detail of Challenge |
|---|---|
|
1 GCSE Academic Progress & Attainment |
GCSE attainment data from 2019 shows that Year 11 disadvantaged students achieve approximately 0.4 of a grade below their peers, on average. In 2019 disadvantaged students achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 66.7 compared to the cohort average of 70.5. In 2022 our small cohort of disadvantaged students achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 72.3 compared to the cohort average of 76.8. 2023 saw our cohort of disadvantaged students achieve an average Attainment 8 score of 71.1 compared to a cohort average of 74.5. This reduced the attainment gap from 4.5 in 2022 to 3.4 in 2023. The 2023 data includes the impressive grade A* gained by one of our disadvantaged year 11 students in A level Mathematics. GCSE progress data suggests that Year 11 disadvantaged students make less progress, relative to KS2 baselines, than their peers. In 2019, disadvantaged students achieved a Progress 8 score of +0.06 compared to the cohort average of +0.26, which generated an average P8 gap of -0.2 (the national gap was reported to be -0.45). In 2019, our P8 gap was greatest in Maths (-0.32) and smallest in non- EBacc/Open subjects (-0.07). In 2022, the Progress 8 score of our cohort of disadvantaged students was -0.18, compared to the cohort average of +0.61, which equates to a P8 gap of -0.79. In terms of our most recent GCSE results, 4matrix generates a Progress 8 score of +0.71 for our disadvantaged cohort, in comparison to the cohort average of +0.66, which is a significant improvement. We remain committed to a continued focus on boosting the attainment and progress of our disadvantaged students via high quality teaching, expert targeted tuition and excellent pastoral support, to further reduce identified gaps. |
|
2 Literacy |
Although Year 7 reading age assessments do not appear to suggest that disadvantaged KS3 students have lower levels of reading comprehension than their peers, the MidYIS vocabulary scores gained by disadvantaged students are below those gained by their peers in many year groups. The largest gap applies to the current Year 11 cohort (MidYIS score of 114 gained by disadvantaged students in comparison to an average cohort score of 120). Although this gap is small, we remain committed to a whole school focus on disciplinary literacy and are aware of the correlation between reading ages and GCSE attainment across all subjects. |
|
3 Impact of Covid Restrictions |
Observations and discussions with students and families show that the education and wellbeing of many students, including those who are disadvantaged, has been negatively impacted over the last few years by partial school closures and covid restrictions. A lack of enrichment opportunities such as school visits and cross-bubble House events, has both restricted the acquisition of cultural capital and limited the positive impact such activities have on student wellbeing. Disruption to the usual delivery of the PSHCE programme, during previous periods of lockdown, similarly impacted on students. National studies suggest that disadvantaged students have been, on average, more significantly affected by covid restrictions, in comparison to their peers. Though the academic year 2022-23 saw a full return to trips and other enrichment opportunities for students (with the exception of overseas visits), we remain mindful of this previous area of challenge for our disadvantaged cohort. |
|
4 Wellbeing & Mental Health |
In line with national trends, a number of our students struggle with wellbeing and mental health challenges. These challenges affect a number of our disadvantaged students and clearly have a potential impact on attainment and progress. |
Intended outcomes
This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.
| Intended Outcome | Success Criteria |
|---|---|
| To deliver high quality teaching and learning that reduces the attainment and progress gaps between disadvantaged students and their non-disadvantaged peers. |
Lesson observations provide evidence of the use of high impact approaches that successfully support the progress of disadvantaged students and their peers. 2025/26 GCSE outcomes demonstrate that disadvantaged pupils achieve, on average, Attainment 8 and Progress 8 scores in line with their peers. |
| To deliver a programme that supports the literacy skills of all students. |
Departmental curriculum planning and lesson observations provide evidence for the impact of Disciplinary Literacy training completed by BGS staff in 2021-22 and 2022-23. 2025/26 GCSE outcomes generate an average English Progress 8 score in the second or first quintile for both disadvantaged students and their peers. |
| To implement interventions that make up for lost learning and development arising from recent Covid restrictions. |
Disadvantaged students participate in enrichment opportunities, such as school visits and extracurricular activities. All students access a PSHCE curriculum with stakeholder feedback demonstrating the positive impact of this program. 2025/26 GCSE outcomes demonstrate that disadvantaged pupils achieve Attainment 8 and Progress 8 scores in line with their peers. |
| To deliver a universal wellbeing curriculum and, where needed, provide targeted support for individuals. | Positive levels of wellbeing demonstrated by qualitative data from student voice, student and parent surveys and teacher observations. |
Activity in this academic year
This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) this academic year to address the challenges listed above.
Teaching Budgeted cost: £16,000
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
|---|---|---|
|
Facilitate staff professional development that supports the delivery of high-quality teaching and learning, with a focus on successful approaches such as Rosenshine’s principles of instruction, metacognition and self-regulation approaches and effective questioning in the classroom. Provide the mechanism for every teacher to develop contextual information for each of their classes. (£10,000) |
Effective Professional Development (EEF)
Metacognition and self-regulation | Toolkit Strand | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF
|
1 |
|
Employ a Literacy Lead, to oversee a programme that supports the development of student literacy skills. Continue to develop the library as a vibrant and engaging resource for all. Support the delivery of Disciplinatery Literacy in all curriculum subjects. (£6,000) |
Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools
Reading comprehension strategies | Toolkit Strand | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF |
2 |
Targeted academic support Budgeted cost: £13,000
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
|---|---|---|
|
Provide booster classes and individual support in English for students struggling with this subject. (£2,000) Part-fund the cost of support interventions made with targeted groups. (£5,000) Part-fund the cost of targeted NTP small group expert tuition to support GCSE students. (£6,000) |
One to one tuition | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)
Small group tuition | Toolkit Strand | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF |
2
3 & 4
3 |
Wider strategies Budgeted cost: £33,348
| Activity | Evidence that supports this approach | Challenge number(s) addressed |
|---|---|---|
|
Part-fund the cost of having qualified school counsellors as a member of our support team. (£7,500) Recruit, train, and supervise a team of sixth form peer mentors able to deliver wellbeing support to younger peers. (£500) |
The mental Health of Children and Young People in England (Public Health England) |
4 |
|
Ensure that disadvantaged students experience no financial impediments to attending visits and extracurricular activities. (£10,000) |
|
3 & 4 |
|
Deliver whole-school support for disadvantaged and vulnerable groups of students via our enrichment courses and the school’s 5 'Power' days which are days devoted to broader issues of learning including careers and study skills among other PSHCE topics (£3,000) |
Personal, social, health and economic (PSHE) education: a review of impact and effective practice (DfE)
|
1, 3 & 4 |
|
Fund a Breakfast Club to ensure pupils receive food before school. It is important for pupils to start the day with a nutritious breakfast. Evidence shows that providing a healthy school breakfast at the start of the school day can contribute to improved readiness to learn, increased concentration, and improved wellbeing and behaviour (£9,000) |
Over 350k children get their morning off to a better start with the National School Breakfast Programme - (Family Action) | 4 |
|
Contingency fund for acute issues. (£3,348) |
Based on our experiences and those of similar schools, we have identified a need to set a small amount of funding aside to respond quickly to needs not yet identified. |
All |
Total budgeted cost: £62,348
Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year
The following details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 academic years.
In 2020, our 14 disadvantaged students gained an average GCSE grade 6.6 across their 11 GCSEs. The cohort average grade in 2020 was 7.0, which generated an attainment gap of -0.4. When 2020 outcomes were compared with MidYIS predictions, disadvantaged students gained an average value-added score of -0.06. Non-disadvantaged peers gained a value-added score of +0.12 which revealed a progress gap of -0.18.
In 2021, our 9 disadvantaged students gained an average GCSE grade 6.6, across their 11 subjects, mirroring the average attainment of the disadvantaged cohort in 2020. The cohort average grade awarded in 2021 was 7.1, which resulted in a slightly greater attainment gap of -0.5. When 2021 outcomes were compared with MidYIS predictions, disadvantaged students gained an average value-added score of -0.50. Non-disadvantaged peers gained a value-added score of +0.02 which revealed a larger progress gap of -0.52.
Our assessment of the reasons for the 2021 outcomes points primarily to Covid-19 which disrupted all subject areas to varying degrees. As evidenced in schools across the country, partial closure was most detrimental to our disadvantaged pupils, and they were not able to benefit from our pupil premium funded improvements to teaching and targeted interventions to the degree that we intended. The impact was mitigated by our resolution to maintain a high-quality curriculum, including during periods of partial closure and to use Google Classroom and Google Meets to facilitate the delivery of live remote lessons throughout the 2021 spring term partial closure.
The school has endeavoured to make full use of the available covid catch-up premium and recovery premium funding over the previous two academic years. In summer 2021, small group after-school covid catch-up classes for year 10 students took place with 35 BGS teachers involved in delivering tuition. 50 year 10 students were initially targeted with each able to select up to 3 weekly subject sessions to attend. 42% of the year 10 cohort ultimately benefited from this intervention including the majority of the year 10 disadvantaged cohort. In Easter 2022, a team of BGS teachers delivered school-led tutoring to a cohort of 59 year 11 students, with each student attending 2 x 7.5 hours of small group tutoring, in 2 subjects. Subjects offered included English, Maths, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, French, German, Computer Science and GCSE PE. Students were selected and invited using various risk factors including negative predicted P8, below BGS average A8, low En/Ma predictions, disadvantaged / vulnerable students, not meeting sixth form entry requirements overall or for preferred higher subjects. All of our disadvantaged students attended this school-led tutoring intervention.
In terms of the National Tutoring Programme, Tuition Partners route, in summer 2021, 10 year 7 students, including 50% of the disadvantaged year group cohort, attended small group English tutoring delivered online by a tuition partner. In 2021/22 one vulnerable year 11 student (on the SEN register) completed 15 hrs of tuition-partner-delivered Science tuition and one disadvantaged year 8 student accessed 15 hrs of online Tuition-Partner-delivered English tuition.
Furthermore, in summer 2021, over 90% of incoming year 7 students, inc 100% of the year group disadvantaged cohort, attended a 1 week BGS-staff-delivered Summer School, to aid transition and to support students working together and/or being active. Subjects delivered included Maths, Literature and Performance, Science, MFL, PE, Art, Food, PSHE plus a workshop delivered by the Problem Solving Company. In summer 2022, similarly 88% of incoming year 7 students, again including 100% of disadvantaged students, attended a 3 day BGS staff delivered Summer School (funded using pupil premium). Subjects included English and Drama, Maths, Science, PE, Design Technology and PSHE plus a workshop delivered by the Problem Solving Company.
In 2022, our small cohort of disadvantaged students achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 72.3 compared to the cohort average of 76.8. 4Matrix generates a Progress 8 score of -0.04 for our 2022 disadvantaged cohort, compared to the cohort average of +0.66, which equates to an average progress gap of -0.7. For information, the three individual P8 scores obtained by our disadvantaged students in 2022 were -0.73, +0.17 and +0.43. In all cases these scores represent an improvement on those predicted by teachers earlier on in the GCSE course and prior to the completion of targeted tuition and intervention.
For example: The average 4Matrix generated P8 score for all Y11 students in spring term 2022 was +0.19. The final GCSE P8 score of +0.66 hence represented an improvement of 0.47. The average 4Matrix generated P8 score for all 58 students who attended Easter 2022 school-led tutoring, in the Spring term reporting cycle was -0.55. The final GCSE P8 score achieved by this cohort of 58 students was -0.01. This was an improvement of 0.54. This suggests that students who attended Easter 2022 school-led tutoring improved their final progress score by 15% more than the cohort average, as a result of the intervention.
We are also pleased to note that our projected P8 score for our 2022-2023 Y11 PP cohort is +0.33, which is slightly above the average prediction for the year group of +0.28.
We hence remain confident that our planned actions and interventions are effective in boosting the attainment and progress of disadvantaged students and their non-disadvantaged peers.
In 2023, our cohort of disadvantaged students achieved an average Attainment 8 score of 71.1 compared to the cohort average of 74.5. 4Matrix generates a Progress 8 score of +0.71 for our 2023 disadvantaged cohort, compared to the cohort average of +0.66, which equates to an average progress gap of +0.05. For information, out of the nine individual P8 scores obtained by our disadvantaged students in 2023, six were positive Progress 8 scores and of those, four were greater than 1. In the majority of cases, these scores represent an improvement on those predicted by teachers earlier on in the GCSE course and prior to the completion of targeted tuition and intervention.