Pupil premium is funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England. 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. All of our pupils have Education Health Care Plans and due to the complexity of their needs, it is not possible to identify the degree to which their achievement is affected by social and economic background. Barriers to learning are primarily developmental with a focus placed upon enabling pupils to acquire communication and independence skills and socially appropriate behaviours within school, home and the wider community. Our pupil premium strategy sets out to provide support to our main identified challenges that can affect all of our pupils: communication, sensory needs, social interaction needs and wellbeing.

Evidence suggests that pupil premium spending is most effective when schools use a tiered approach, targeting spending across three areas, with a particular focus on investing in high quality teaching, additional support for some pupils focussed on their specific needs and support for non-academic issues that impact success in school, such as attendance, behaviour and social and emotional challenges.

The Pupil Premium 2021-2022 priorities are part of a new three-year strategy to ensure the best support is in place for maximising progress for the most vulnerable learners in addition to our core provision. Detail of how we use the funding are attached below.