Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils. To support schools to improve educational outcomes for these students the Government provides additional Pupil Premium funding.

This funding (pupil premium) is to support students who are looked after by the Local Authority, have been adopted from/left care, are in receipt of free school meals and those who have received free school meals during the last 6 years.

There is also additional funding for children with a parent currently serving in the regular armed forces, have previously been registered as a service child in the last 6 years or if a parent died whilst serving and the pupil receives a pension from the army.

See the strategy statement for more detail on how our pupil premium is being spent and the outcomes that are being achieved for pupils. As required in the pupil premium conditions of grant we have ensured this funding is spent in line with the ‘menu of approaches’ published in the guidance.

As recommended we plan our pupil premium use over 3 years and we follow the statutory requirement to update our statement each year to reflect our spending activity for that academic year and the impact of pupil premium in the previous academic year. This updated report is shared with Governors and published on the school website.

2025-2028 Pupil Premium Strategy

At King James’s School we use the funding to support eligible students to help fulfil their potential. The three year strategy is evidence based to ensure the funding has the greatest impact using the latest Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) research. This support prioritises high quality teaching, targeted academic support and wider approaches such as attendance intervention and social and emotional/ mental health support and is designed to meet the needs of individual students.

We do not target the additional funding purely at examination performance.  A strong focus is also put upon building self-esteem, confidence and resilience amongst these students. We believe that focussing on personal development skills is likely to impact upon academic performance.

Teachers are aware of the pupil premium students in their class and are expected, through high quality teaching and learning, to design work to support them.  Where appropriate, pupil premium students have an individual support plan which explains to their teachers what their barriers to learning are and how they can be best supported.

Pupil premium students at King James’s School may have a range of barriers to their learning including poor attendance, engagement issues, social and emotional/mental health needs, lack of access to resources and support though family circumstances. The personalised approach we adopt with these students includes support that students may not otherwise be able to access.

Our Associate Assistant Heads, and Year Managers co-ordinate support and make links with the families.  Some support may be temporary; some will stay in place for longer. All interventions are reviewed regularly to assess impact and are modified or changed as necessary. The largest area of expenditure is to ensure our wider pastoral team can provide targeted intervention to fully support our students and their families.

Review of our pupil premium strategy takes place twice per year as a result of monitoring data.  Interventions are changed and adapted according to the individual needs of the students.