Early Years Pupil Premium
National statistics have identified a gap between the educational attainment of children from ‘disadvantaged’ and ‘lower income’ families and their peers. In an attempt to narrow this gap the Government introduced the Early Years Pupil Premium in April 2015. This is some additional funding for children age 3-4 years which comes into schools in addition to their main budget, targeted directly at children fall into this category.
WHAT THIS MEANS TO OUR SCHOOL
When a child joins our nursery all parents are asked to complete a Pupil Premium form which helps us to assess if their child will be eligible for this extra funding, all information provided is treated in the strictest confidence and shared only with the County Council to confirm eligibility.
Schools are required to use this money to support the education of the eligible children and to narrow the gap between them and their peers and we will be held accountable for how we choose to use the additional funds.
As our numbers of children eligible for EYPP are relatively small we consider on an individual basis what their barriers to learning are and plan to support them accordingly.
Common barriers which have been identified are:
- Lack of support at home due to time and available resources
- Behavioural and emotional issues
- Communication and language difficulties
- Low confidence and self-esteem
- Turbulent or changing family circumstances
HOW WE PROPOSE TO NARROW THE GAP USING THIS FUNDING
Here at Frizington Nursery School, this extra funding may be used in a variety of ways depending on the individual needs of the current cohort of pupils. This might include
· Targeted interventions for small groups or individual children in order to support their personal, social or emotional development, their language and communication skills, their literacy or mathematical skills.
· Increasing the staffing numbers so that children can be supported better in the classroom.
· Providing additional resources or staff training to meet specific needs.
This year we propose to spend the EYPP funding on:
- providing extra nursery sessions/ free school lunches
- supporting individuals with language & mathematical development
- introducing well-being activities such as 'mindfulness & peer yoga'
Each year we will provide a full breakdown of how we use this funding to support the children and the impact it has on their achievement. We measure the effect on pupils by looking at their personal levels of achievement when they join the nursery and when they leave. We also look at attainment against the expected level for a child of their age and see if we have been effective in 'narrowing the gap' or for any higher achieving children in receipt of EYPP, that they have maintained or accelerated their expected level of progress.
It is well documented that high quality early education can influence how well a child does at both primary and secondary school, so we welcome this additional funding which will help us give all the children attending our school the best start possible.
Academic Year 2022-2023
At present we have 8 children who attend Frizington Nursery School who received Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP).
The school is in the process of receiving this money from Cumbria County Council and as a result a full breakdown will be provided by the end of the academic year.
£500 has been budgeted to provide extra nursery sessions including lunch club for children with the aim of encouraging improved attendance and developing social skills and providing a healthy meal and improving attendance.
£100.00 has been allocated for books specifically aimed at providing a wide variety of books for children to choose for use within our library book bags and also books with a maths focus to continue to support the development of a love of books.
The remaining money will be allocated to, contribute towards the cost of a member of staff to support children, individually and in small groups to support their language comprehension and language development. This will also include working specifically alongside other professionals such as the Speech and Language Team (SALT) using specific programmes for identified children. The importance of play and play based learning is fundamental to our nursery ethos and as such will remain a focus for adults to help support the understanding of play skills.
The basis for our spending was our baseline assessment completed within the first half term of a child starting with us highlighting the social, emotional aspects of language comprehension and communication impacting on their own development.
IMPACT
Work is continuing well at present (November 2022) with three students receiving specific interventions in relation to communication who have additional needs. One further child has been referred to SALT with 4 others receiving targeted sessions focusing on language comprehension, social skills including turn taking and sharing.