Pupil Premium Strategy Statement

This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium funding to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged pupils during the coming academic year – 2025 to 2026.

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	Saffron Valley Collegiate
Number of pupils on roll during academic year	144
Total number of pupils eligible for PPG	FSM: 47 CLA: 20
Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers (3 year plans are recommended)	2021/22 to 2024/25
Date this statement was published	December 2021
Date on which it will be reviewed	Summer Term 2025
Statement authorised by	Gill LaRocque Headteacher
Governor / Trustee lead	Jeff Deklijn, Chair

Funding overview

Detail	Amount
Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year	FSM: £60,787.50 CLA: £3,862 Post-LAC: 1,314.44

Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable)	£ 0
Total budget for this academic year If your school is an academy in a trust that pools this funding, state the amount available to your school this academic year	£65,963.94

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 that goal, including progress for those who are already high attainers, many of whom will have missing months or years of education.

We will consider the challenges faced by vulnerable pupils, such as those who have a social worker, looked after and young carers. The activity we have outlined in this statement is also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.

High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach, with a focus on areas in which disadvantaged pupils require the most support. 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’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.

Our approach will be responsive to common challenges and individual needs, rooted in robust diagnostic assessment, not assumptions about the impact of disadvantage. The approaches we have adopted complement each other to help pupils excel. To ensure they are effective we will:

ensure disadvantaged pupils are challenged in the work that they’re set;
act early to intervene at the point need is identified;
adopt a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve.

At SVC, all staff are aware who the PPG pupils are and we regularly monitor their progress. SVC is also aware that many of our pupils who are disadvantaged and/or vulnerable do not qualify for PPG, or may not be registered for free school meals. PPG is therefore allocated to support teaching and learning across the wider curriculum, as well as individualised support including therapeutic services to support social/emotional progress.

Our strategy is focused on:

Raising attendance;
Providing an engaging curriculum;
Delivering therapeutic support.

Challenges

This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.

Challenge number	Detail of challenge
1	Poor attendance Many pupils arrive at SVC with no, or a very low, baseline for attendance. Many pupils have become disengaged from learning. Pupils within the provision for emotionally based school avoiders will have long standing and complex issues.
2	Unidentified / unaddressed learning needs Many of our young people present with periodic or long-term absences from school, which has historically impacted on the ability to fully assess and address their needs. One of the most common unaddressed needs is speech, language and communication.
3	Low literacy levels Assessments and observations indicate that disadvantaged pupils generally have lower levels of reading comprehension than their peers, below age related expectation.
4	Ability to demonstrate appropriate behaviour for learning Pupils present with limited, or no, understanding of expectations within the learning environment. Many are typically used to acting out and initially demonstrate an inability to focus in lessons.
5	Poor motivation for learning It is commonplace for our pupils not to see themselves as learners. Many have low levels of motivation for learning because they have not yet developed a passion for acquiring knowledge and skills. We aim to provide our young people with an engaging curriculum that is rich in cultural capital.
6	Unidentified/unaddressed mental health or wellbeing needs The overwhelming majority of our young people have experienced historic trauma or are currently living in a context that feeds uncertainty and fear. We acknowledge their behaviour (however challenging), as communication and seek to present them with appropriate therapeutic options to support them to deal with their individual circumstances.

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
Improved attendance	Improving attendance baseline. SVCs attendance is above PRU national average (67.5%). A significant number of pupils achieve attendance above 90% following appropriate interventions Narrowing the attainment gap
Identify and address needs that form a barrier to learning – including therapeutic support	Early identification of individual need, ideally at the point of induction Staff are able to use their learning from CPD into classroom practice Pupils are able to access therapeutic support as part of their personalised offer – this may be delivered in their provision. There is a range of support to address a variety of needs. Targeted and timely academic interventions to enable learning Pupils responding positively by attending regularly, making good academic and social / emotional progress Teaching teams receive CPD that enables them to understand and cater for pupils with a range of SEND Lessons are differentiated at the point of planning. Access arrangements are well matched to the typical day-to-day adjustments made for pupils Narrowing the attainment gap
Increased literacy levels	Improvement in skills to facilitate learning across the curriculum Narrowing the attainment gap
Improved behaviour for learning	Pupils increased understanding of Be Ready, Be Respectful, Be Safe Improved access to learning Improved relationships with staff and other pupils, less incidents Narrowing the attainment gap
Equality of access to home learning resources	Support pupils with access to devices and, in some instances, WIFI Uptake on extended learning outside of the classroom Enhanced IT exposure and understanding by pupils There is equality of access to IT (hardware and software) to enable all pupils to continue learning outside of the classroom. Where the home situation is not conducive to home learning, the provision is in a position to provide extended learning space Narrowing the attainment gap

In addition:

Fund targeted support and activities as determined during PEP reviews and other professional meetings, e.g. individual tuition, practical/vocational activities, etc.
All support to be agreed by SLT, SENCo, pupil and parent/carer and social care, (where appropriate).

Activity in this academic year

This details how we have spent our pupil premium this academic year to address the challenges listed above.

Record of PPG spending by item/project 2024/25
Item/project	Cost	Objective
Technology	£509	Support to facilitate individual learning.
Renewal of BKSB, My Maths, GL Assessment and Online Safety Programme	£1,467	To improve numeracy and literacy skills, support assessment Online safety resources.
Dramatherapy for pupils / Creative Arts Therapeutic Mentoring	£20,000	To support and promote well-being and emotional resilience To support unidentified / unaddressed learning needs
Attendance Worker/Family Engagement	£26,250	Family and pupil engagement. Raising attendance.
Alternative providers: Road to Success/ Syrus Consultancy	£4,005	Academic curriculum not appropriate for all students and many benefit from alternative learning courses/vocational skills learning from alternative providers offering accredited courses. Provide a more engaging curriculum and prepare for post-16 transition.
Teaching Assistant	£13,733	Individual pupil support to facilitate learning To support unidentified / unaddressed learning needs

Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year

Pupil premium strategy outcomes

This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

Throughout the year, we used pupil premium funding to provide a comprehensive range of enrichment opportunities and targeted support for our disadvantaged pupils. This included:

Exam resources and revision materials to ensure all PPG pupils had access to high-quality learning materials to support their preparation for assessments
One-to-one and small group tuition in core subjects to address gaps in learning and build confidence
Cultural capital experiences including visits to art galleries, sports stadiums and the zoo, broadening pupils' horizons and supporting their personal development
Easter and summer residential trips providing opportunities for team-building, developing independence and creating positive memories and relationships
Daily 'Drop Everything and Read' sessions embedded across the school to support the development of literacy skills, foster a love of reading, and ensure all pupils, particularly those eligible for pupil premium, had regular access to quality texts

Our assessments demonstrated that pupil behaviour, wellbeing and mental health remain impacted due to COVID-19-related issues – most notably the transition from Primary to Secondary where the impact is being seen in the social and emotional development of students in Key Stage 3. This impact has been particularly acute for disadvantaged pupils.

The pupils with historic poor attendance found it particularly difficult to establish positive peer-relationships along with dysregulated patterns of attendance and punctuality. We used pupil premium funding to provide wellbeing support for all pupils and targeted interventions where required. We continue to build on that approach, ensuring our disadvantaged pupils receive both academic and pastoral support to help them thrive.

Further information

SVC has been included in the DfE Alternative Provision (AP) Specialist Taskforce 2- year pilot, which was extended into a fourth year where partial funding will continue until March 2026. This programme has funded a multi-agency team to be co-located with SVC school leaders and provide targeted interventions to SVC pupils. This team has consisted of:

A Speech and Language Team – consisting of a therapist and two assistants
A Mental Health Lead coordinating a team of therapists from a number of disciplines
A Family Worker
A Youth Worker
A Post-16 Transition Worker
Assistant Psychologist and Educational Psychologist

It is clear that the Specialist Taskforce have had a fundamental impact on the SVC offer.