Pupil Premium

Strategy statement

This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium (and recovery premium for the 2021 to 2022 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	Bassingbourn Village College
Number of pupils in school	672
Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible pupils	18.33%
Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers (3 year plans are recommended)	2021-2024
Date this statement was published	November 2023
Date on which it will be reviewed	April 2024
Statement authorised by	Vickey Poulter
Pupil premium lead	Phil Church
Governor / Trustee lead	Charlotte Fernandez

Funding overview

Detail	Amount
Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year	£99,630
Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year	£26,496
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	£126,126

Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan

Statement of intent

Our statement of intent is that all our pupil premium students will have benefitted from the following experiences during their time at Bassingbourn Village College:

1. Enriching Field Trips: Offering educational excursions to museums, cultural sites, or places related to their curriculum to enhance their learning experience.

2. Mentorship Programs: Pairing them with mentors or professionals in fields of interest to provide guidance and real-world insights.

3. Community Service Projects: Involving them in meaningful community service activities to develop empathy, leadership, and a sense of responsibility.

4. Outdoor Learning Adventures: Providing opportunities for outdoor activities, such as camping trips or nature explorations, fostering teamwork and resilience.

5. Arts and Cultural Workshops: Exposing them to diverse art forms, music, or theatre through workshops or performances to broaden their perspectives.

6. STEM Challenges: Engaging them in hands-on science, technology, engineering, and math challenges or workshops to spark interest in these fields.

7. Entrepreneurial Projects: Encouraging them to create and manage small businesses or projects, fostering creativity and critical thinking.

8. International Exchanges: Facilitating exchanges or pen-pal programs with students from different countries to promote cultural understanding and global awareness.

9. Leadership Opportunities: Providing platforms for them to take on leadership roles within school clubs, events, or initiatives to build confidence and skills.

10. Career Exploration Days: Organizing sessions where they can interact with professionals from various careers to gain insight into different job opportunities.

Challenges

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

Challenge number	Detail of challenge
1	Raising aspirations for post-16 study To support pupil premium students to make aspirational choices for their post-16 study
2	Lack of access to IT Surveys completed initially during the pandemic showed that up to 40% of pupil premium students did not have appropriate access to technology at home so they could complete homework and engage with Google Classrooms
3	A lack of parental engagement Analysis of the attendance to parent evenings has highlighted lower attendance for pupil premium parents
4	Low levels of literacy Reading age tests have highlighted a gap of up to 2.5 years between pupil premium and non-pupil premium students in a cohort. National studies highlight the literacy gap for pupil premium students.
5	Poor attendance – below 90% Pupil premium attendance is significantly below the whole school with a gap of approximately 5%
6	Raising attainment in English and maths Historic data highlights the gap in attainment between pupil premium and non-pupil premium students
7	Metacognition and revision activities To ensure that pupil premium students have equal access to good quality revision resources and they are taught the skills to revise effectively
8	General well-being Post pandemic, a significant number of pupil premium students have sought support for their well-being in school

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.

Challenge Number

Intended outcome

Success criteria

Progress and Impact

All pupil premium students to move on to an appropriate post-16 destination

All pupil premium students to be in post-16 destination in September after they leave.

All year 10 and 11 students to have access to guidance meetings

Higher attaining pupil premium students to transition to appropriately aspirational post-16 destination.

2023 all pupil premium students have accessed a post-16 destination.

All pupil premium students to have appropriate access to

Evidence from the IT survey that 100% of pupil premium students have appropriate IT access at home.

Evidence that 100% of pupil premium students have access to Google Classrooms.

Chromebooks available through a loan scheme for pupil premium students as required.

iPads available for specific interventions e.g. Ukrainian students who need to use them for translation.

Survey completed October 2022. 93% have appropriate equipment to access Google Classrooms. Replacement equipment organised by PC. New survey November 2023 to check current access to equipment and to find students who can use our current set of refurbished laptops provided by the community.

iPads purchased for pupil premium students loaned to EAL students on a daily basis for translation.

All pupil premium parents to engage with the school reporting and feedback process

Pupil premium parents to engage with parent evening evidenced by collation of registers from School Cloud.

Positive response from pupil premium parents in the parent survey.

Year 11 parent evening 2023 100% of pupil premium parents engage with the reporting process on some level by either attending the meetings or agreeing to a follow up phone call/email with feedback. December 2023, API link to School Cloud to track parent evening attendance.

Closing the literacy gap and teaching

subject specific tier 2

vocabulary

Tier 2 vocabulary lists to be embedded in all departments evidenced in observations and learning walks

Tier 3 vocabulary to be embedded in 5 year curriculum.

Evidence that pupil premium students in year 7, 8 and 9 are making progress in words study, grammar and comprehension.

Reading strategies to be implemented in mentor time.

Reading to be promoted throughout the school through extra-curricular clubs and activities, promotion of national reading challenges, author visits and the provision of the library.

Vocabulary teaching highlighted as a strength in the Trust curriculum visit October 2022.

Reading programme for mentor time implemented by AD October 2022.

Lexia trial completed in April 2023 and to be used with year 7, 8 and 9 pupil premium students.

NGRT reading test for year 7 October 2023. Reading ages shared with staff and Lexia interventions put in place. Select group of year 8 and 9 pupil premium and SEND students to be tested December 2023.

Pupil Premium attendance to be

consistently above

90%

Pupil premium attendance tracked over time using Power BI.

Students with low attendance supported through parental engagement.

Pupil premium attendance

20.11.2022 84.48%.

89.41% when students who have off-site provision are removed from the total figure.

To raise attainment in

English and Maths in

KS3 and KS4

Close the gap in attainment and progress between pupil premium and non-pupil premium students in core subjects.

Targeted intervention in English and maths with a measured impact e.g. tuition, v-groups.

Quality first teaching to raise attainment of pupil premium students in KS3 through effective teaching of key areas e.g. literacy and numeracy. Evidenced through internal data collation.

2022-2023 targeted intervention in-place for English and maths. Hours per student being tracked.

2023-2024 My Tutor to be used to provide tuition for pupil premium students after the year 11 practice exams.

English focus on vocabulary and recall embedded in 5 year curriculum.

5-a-day retrieval in maths lessons

All pupil premium students to be confident using a range of revision strategies

Impact of revision strategy sessions to be collated in pupil premium survey

Evidence to show pupil premium students are confident using a wide range of resources e.g. flashcards, online resources and revision guides

Evidence to show pupil premium students have appropriate equipment for school from pupil premium survey.

94% of pupil premium students surveyed could identify at least one revision strategy they could use effectively.

November 2023, all pupil premium students have access to appropriate equipment and revision materials in core subjects.

All year 11 students have 2 mentor revision sessions a week with revision cards provided for core subjects

To ensure appropriate support is available to all students if required

Pupil premium students to be offered well-being support as required.

Spirals approach to build relationships and understand barriers and ensure every pupil premium student has a champion

Proactive support for pupil premium students by mentors and achievement leaders.

Well-being support through the hive and the pastoral system.

My Concern widely used to log safeguarding concerns.

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 (for example, CPD, recruitment and retention)

Budgeted cost: £ [55,000]

Activity	Evidence that supports this approach	Challenge number(s) addressed
CPD focus on inclusive classrooms	EEF guidance report on special educational needs in mainstream schools. The report highlights the importance of the classroom teacher in providing equal opportunities to learn for all students.	Challenges 4, 5, 6, 8
CPD sessions on literacy and vocabulary	EEF Toolkit +6 months. There are gaps in reading age of up to 2 years between pupil premium and non-pupil premium students in each cohort. Whole school initiatives can reduce this gap by focusing on reading intervention strategies that benefit disadvantaged students. Using Star Reader, we have taken the reading ages of year 7 and 8 which has shown there is a 14 month gap between pupil premium and non-pupil premium students.	Challenge 4
Recruiting strong teachers in maths and English	EEF Toolkit +6 months for high quality feedback and strong classroom teaching. In the current year 11, there is a 0.4 progress gap between PP and non-PP students. Strong classroom teaching has been shown to bridge the gap between PP and non-PP students.	Challenge 6
Maintaining small class sizes in core English and maths classes in 9, 10 and 11.	EEF Toolkit +2 months. Smaller core classes are viewed positively by staff who believe they enable higher quality support in the classroom.	Challenge 7
Developing the use of technology in the classroom through the iPad project	The EEF report into technology in the classroom in 2019 suggested it helped teachers to model good work and give feedback more effectively. We are experimenting with iPads in the classroom for lower ability students, focusing on the accessibility options and the ways it can be used to develop modelling in the classroom. We are using the Apple Elements of Learning book to focus our vision of technology in the classroom.	Challenges 6 and 7

Targeted academic support (for example, tutoring, one-to-one support structured interventions)

Budgeted cost: £ [20,000]

Activity	Evidence that supports this approach	Challenge number(s) addressed
Lexia to be used to provide reading intervention in Years 7,8 and 9	EEF Toolkit +6 months for reading programmes that are properly implemented. In previous work with Accelerated Reader at Bassingbourn Village College, disadvantaged students made up to 2 years of progress in their reading age in less than a year.	Challenge 4
School-led tutoring in core subjects	EEF Toolkit +5 months. Evidence shows that students are more likely to attend and benefit from school-led tuition than from outside agencies.	Challenge 6
Metacognition and revision sessions for all students	EEF Toolkit +7 months. Giving students the skills to revise and reflect on their learning has a significant impact on progress when implemented as a whole school initiative. The study into how much more progress disadvantaged students can make through this strategy versus non-disadvantaged is ongoing.	Challenge 7

Wider strategies (for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)

Budgeted cost: £ [45,000]

Activity	Evidence that supports this approach	Challenge number(s) addressed
STEPs behaviour policy	EEF behaviour interventions research shows that a successful whole school behavioural approach can raise progress by +4 months.	Challenges 5 and 8
Parental engagement to support students with raising their attendance	EEF Toolkit +4 months progress regardless of socio-economic factors according to the 2019 EEF report into the impact of parental engagement. This report showed that the impact is higher on disadvantaged than non-disadvantaged students. For the year 8 parent evening, 87% of parents engaged positively with the process.	Challenges 3 and 5
Well-being support through facilities in the Hive, PSHE lessons, mentor time and achievement leader support.	The 2019 EEF report ‘Healthy Minds: Healthy Outcomes’ showed that projects improving mental health have a significant positive impact on students physically, emotionally and academically. There is a study currently taking place (The Healthy Minds Statistical Analysis Plan) that is looking at the impact of healthy minds interventions on disadvantaged vs non-disadvantaged students at primary and secondary.	Challenge 8
Providing laptops through a school loan system.	Student surveys have shown that up to 15% of pupil premium students do not have adequate technology at home to enable them to access Google Classrooms or study online if isolating. We now have a stock of 41 laptops WiFi ready to use with this scheme. Evidence is also being collated through the PP survey to find students who need to use the loan scheme.	Challenge 2
Aspirational trips and visits and advice and guidance for post-16	As this is a complex area, there is no definitive study that shows its impact. Historically, all PP students from Bassingbourn find appropriate courses for post-16 study and we believe our small community enables us to provide the support that enables this. Despite the disruption, we have managed to give financial help to some PP students to attend aspirational events such as a year 7 team building day which had positive student feedback.	Challenge 1
Developing student wellbeing and life skills. Enabling students to take a full part in college life and supporting achievement.	Surveying students to find their individual challenges. The PP survey is underway and has provided some important evidence about student aspirations and experience in the classroom. This evidence is being collated in Power BI to share with all staff.	Challenges 1, 4, 6, 7 and 8

Total budgeted cost: £ [126,000]

Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year

Pupil premium outcomes

This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2021-2022 academic year. Please see the information sheet below for information on the 2022 exam series, which can also be downloaded PP plan outcomes:

Part C: Pupil Premium Actions and Strategies by challenge

Low aspirations for post-16 study	Actions & Strategy	Impacts
Parental meetings for year 11 applications.	PC supported parents during post-16 options process. Also, PC met pupil premium students during the year 8 options process to help them with their choices.	This is a successful strategy with all pupil premium students from the 2023 cohort accessing their post-16 destination.
Aspirational trips and visits.	Trips and visits returned after covid summer 2022. Year 7 PP students supported with payments for team-building day. Support for PP students to attend academic trips and visits in-line with the current guidance.
Participation in Duke of Edinburgh	PP students enlisted in D of E and full price paid.	10 pupil premium students are currently being supported to take D of E.
Pupil Premium Survey	Pupil premium students have taken part in a survey in April/May 2022 to find out about their aspirations for post-16 study, reading habits and re-sources.	The survey enabled us to highlight key areas to focus on e.g. reading at home, student leadership and engagement in clubs and activities.

Lack of access to IT	Actions & Strategy	Impacts
Computers for PP student	Distribution of new Chromebooks on a loan scheme starting November 2021. Due to further laptops delivered by the DofE and purchased through the catch-up funding we now have a surplus supply that are available to be loaned to PP students as required.	In the June 2022 survey, 94% had access to a laptop at home. Some needed replacements due to technical issues. In November 2022, this figure was 96%. We are in a position to maintain this high figure by checking provision and replacing broken equipment.
Use of Read and Write software	Installed on all school computers and G Suite. Training given to students who require readers	Currently 2 Year 11 pupil premium students are using the Read and Write software in their exams. On questioning them, they said that they found the software very useful and it had given them much greater confidence in the exam hall.
IPad and Chromebook department sets	IPad use trialled with small group of students looking at accessibility functions. There are now 30 iPads in science and 48 in English. In English lessons the iPads are being used to support literacy and to help students engage in oracy tasks. In maths Chromebooks are used to provide homework clubs for students with support from maths specialists	CPD sessions have built staff confidence in using the iPad in the class-room for modelling. We are developing the practice of modelling work for students and sharing work using apps such as Padlet and Keynote.

A lack of parental engagement	Actions & Strategy	Impacts
Regular parental contact	Parental calls made during lockdown by support staff to most vulnerable PP students. This practice has continued with parental contacts and meetings made via the support staff, achievement leaders and SLT to support our most vulnerable disadvantaged students.	PC has developed a rota for contacting PP parents to address behavioural or attendance issues by collating data from Power BI and triangulating assessment, behaviour and attendance.
Raised attendance to parent meetings	PC to track attendance to parent meetings using reports from SchoolCloud and follow up non-attenders. SchoolCloud has been opened for PP parents 24 hours in advance of other students and they have been offered help booking their slots. For the year 11 parent evening, 88% of PP students attended appointments vs 81% attendance over-all. 100% of parents engaged with feedback on some level.	For the year 11 parent evening, 88% of PP students attended appointments vs 81% attendance overall. 100% of parents engaged with feed-back on some level.
Staff and Mentor engagement with PP parents	Mentor training focuses on aware-ness of pupil premium students within mentor groups and developing staff knowledge of these students, particularly those who are disadvantaged and SEND learners. There are weekly student support briefings led by AW that provide context and strategies for disadvantaged and SEND students.	This year, with the focus on the inclusive classroom, teachers have taken part in CPD sessions on how they can engage all learners in their class-rooms. The SEND information has been better organised to make it more accessible. This is the focus of appraisal and lesson observations this year, so the impact of this strategy should be measurable in March after the first round of observations.
Progress follow up phone- calls	For parents who cannot attend parent evening appointments, feedback is collated and shared with parents through a phone call by the pupil premium lead or an achievement leader.	For the parent evenings in 2021-2022 all pupil premium students received feedback in some format if parents did not attend through either email or phone-call from PC/Achievement Leader.

Low Levels of Literacy	Actions and Strategy	Impacts
Vocabulary teaching	After a professional learning day focused on literacy and vocabulary, teams have been working on their strategies to develop the teaching of Tier 2 and 3 vocabulary. Departments are now working on ways to in-bed vocabulary teaching into their schemes of work	In English, vocabulary teaching is embedded into all schemes of learning. Tier 2 vocabulary is taught using the Freyer model.
Creation of literacy TLR in English	In April, we appointed a TLR position to promote literacy and vocabulary linked to the English department. Their role is to look at how we engage students with reading and develop vocabulary teaching with a particular focus on disadvantaged students.	This role has had an impact on reading in mentor time, the organisation of the library, reading clubs and activities and the promotion of reading for enjoyment
Reading mentor scheme	14 Year 7 PP students are currently working with reading mentors from year 9. There is a programme of reading novels in year 7, 8 and 9 mentor time in which mentor groups choose a book from the selection organised by the Literacy TLR holder and read it as a shared experience over a two week period.
Monitoring Reading Ages	NGRT reading test used October 2023 to establish reading ages for year 7 students and a group of year 8 and 9 pupil premium/SEND students.	Reading ages for year 7 published to staff November 2023. Detailed re-ports on each student created in Testwise and published to SLT/SEND team. Interventions put in place by the Hive.
Mentor time literacy activities	These include: Using The Day to read news articles and whole group reading activities
Reading Interventions	Pupil premium students benefited from reading sessions focusing on root words and suffixes to develop vocabulary and reading age. These sessions were organised and run by the SENCo and followed up with further reading tests to gauge progress and further sessions to develop fluency and vocabulary.

Poor attendance – below 90%	Actions & Strategy	Impacts
Tracking of school attendance	Pupil Premium attendance 87.58% 4/11/2021. 87.04% 17/05/2022. 86.37% 18/01/2023. School attendance tracked using Power BI which highlights students in PA and can be filtered to allow a focus on specific groups of students.	Although pupil premium attendance is still low in comparison with the rest of the cohort, this has been heavily affected by outliers who are non-at-tenders. For example, taking three students who are educated off-site from the current attendance data changes it from 86.37% to 88.12%.
Regular attendance meetings	Low attenders supported through regular parental meetings led by student support staff.	Regular parental contact and support from school has enabled some students to increase their attendance. See case study 1 below.
Strategies for low attenders by mentors, support staff and achievement leaders	As a key part of our pastoral support system, mentors and achievement leaders are given regular updates on attendance and are involved in making parental contact.	During 2022, low attenders were dis-cussed during mentor meetings and parental contacts made. This had an impact on some pupil premium students
Engagement in school life	In the PP survey, 54.21% of PP students were positive or very positive about coming to school every day. 28.04% gave an average score.

Raising attainment in English and maths	Actions & Strategy	Impacts
Catch-up planning	Catch-up plan references specific PP actions including tutoring for small groups of year 7 and 8 students in maths and Accelerated Reader.
Class sizes in English and maths	Additional staffing means there are six classes in years 9, 10 and 11 in English.
Resources for PP students e.g. texts and revision guides	Resources continued to be distributed during lockdown e.g. Computing textbooks, technology resources and art materials. In 2023, provision for subjects has included: English texts, maths revision guides, calculators, geometry sets, cooking resources
Dr Frost and English Department website	English and maths teams are using online resources to make homework and revision available to all students. As we are ensuring PP students have laptop provision at home, they have equal access to these resources. Independent work is set according to department policy.
School-led tutoring programme	Tuition is organised in school for core subjects by Bassingbourn staff. Both maths and English have been offering 1:1 or small group intervention sessions for disadvantaged students.	With a focus on year 11 during the build up to exams, groups of stu-dents from 7-10 are now benefiting from these sessions with a focus on numeracy and literacy. Over 233 hours have been logged so far. Year 11 pupil premium students will be given

Metacognition and Revision Actions	Actions and Strategy	Impacts
Metacognition training sessions with PP focus	PP focused metacognition sessions in November 2022. RC has led sessions for all students with a particular focus on groups of PP students ensuring that they have the skills to revise independently.	In the survey, 94% of pupil premium students could identify a specific revision strategy they would use to prepare for an exam.
Mentor revision sessions	With year specific mentors, there has been the opportunity for group revision using resources as directed by heads of department.	Observations have shown that year 11 pupil premium students are bene-fitting from specific revision sessions during mentor time e.g. they have access to a maths teacher to ask subject specific questions
Questioning and engagement in lessons	As part of our teaching and learning strategy teachers are expected to use ‘cold calling’ in lessons to ensure all students are given equal opportunity to share their ideas.	This has been identified as a strength in lesson observations and learning walks. In a year 9 survey, 92% of PP students agreed or agreed strongly that they were given feedback that helped them make progress.

General Wellbeing	Actions & Strategy	Impacts
Use of the YMCA	Twice weekly visits to Hive.	8 PP students are currently using the service.
Additional support staff and role of the Hive	One permanent additional staff in the Hive. One part-time.	The additional staff member in the Hive has given extensive support to pupil premium students – see case study student 1.
Staff trained as counsellor – weekly sessions	Friday sessions available.
Room 46 as a revision	Started October 2021. PP students benefit from a time to work quietly and use laptops for their online homework.
Music lessons	As part of a drive to get pupil premium students more engaged in school life, we have been offering half-term taster session music lessons. These have included lessons in singing, piano and guitar. If students are keen to keep learning mu-sic, this has been followed up with a full term of weekly lessons.	In 2022-2023, 10% of pupil premium students have benefitted from support with music tuition. In 2023-2024, 8% of pupil premium students are benefitting from support with music tuition.
Support for EHCP students	VL working on 1:1 support and behaviour plans with pupil premium students who have an EHCP	Currently, 3 pupil premium students are being supported by behaviour plans that have been shared with staff and are reviewed every fortnight. These plans are designed to support students getting in to lessons and with completing work for any lessons that have been missed.

Part D: Pupil Premium Case Studies

Student 1: This student has received extensive support from the Hive and the student support team due to anxiety. They have been supported to work in the Hive when not able to attend lessons and been given a range of strategies to use such as an exit card and specific members of the team to talk to when required. They have grown in confidence considerably and in interview said that: ‘they were surprised at how much they had changed over a year’. Their attendance is now 86.71%, but more importantly they are in lessons far more consistently due to effective use of the strategies put in place. They have benefited from strong relationships with teachers and been able to work with them to break learning down into more accessible chunks and build confidence.

Student 2: This student has benefited from being part of our school community and thrives on positive interactions with staff. He is currently making excellent progress and at the first data point in year 10 was at 0.53. Pupil premium provision has given him the opportunity to have music lessons and he has appeared on stage in school productions with great confidence. Parental engagement was developed during lockdown and has remained strong.

Student 3: A year 11 student has increased their attendance from low 70% to 92.7% in year 11. An interview with the student showed that they felt supported by the school through the relationship with their teachers. They felt increasingly motivated to revise for their exams and to be in lessons. They felt that the school had helped them to choose a career and they were feeling far more confident about the next steps.

Archive Pupil Premium Plans can be downloaded:

2017/18: HERE

2018/19 HERE

2019/20 HERE

2020/21 HERE

2021/22 HERE