Detail

Data

School name

St Katharine’s Knockholt CEPS

Number of pupils in school

175

Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible pupils

9.7% 17 pupils

Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers

2021-2022 to 2024-2025

Date this statement was published

December 2024

Date on which it will be reviewed

September 2025

Statement authorised by

Sarah-Jane Tormey & Xanthe Veneziani

(Headteachers)

Pupil premium lead

Nikki Bridel

(Assistant Head & SENCO)

Governor / Trustee lead

Doreen Jones, (Lead for Disadvantaged Pupils)

Detail

Amount

Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year

£17,370

Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable)

£0

Total budget for this academic year

£17,370

• At St Katharine’s Knockholt, we strive to ensure that all pupils, regardless of their background or the challenges they face, make good progress and achieve high attainment across all subject areas. The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve that goal.
• Although our pupil premium funding will be targeted at narrowing the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers, and enabling these pupils to achieve age-related expectations, in making provision for disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals, who are in the care of the Local Authority, or who are adopted, will have low ability. We focus on supporting these pupils to achieve their highest level.
• High-quality teaching is central to 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 gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school.
• We recognise that disadvantaged children can face a wide range of barriers which can impact their learning. Understanding our pupils, their families and barriers to learning is at the heart of our strategy to support disadvantaged pupils.
• Assessing the range of needs of individual pupils ensures that appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable or disadvantaged groups, to ensure they are adequately supported pastorally, socially & emotionally as well as in their learning.
• We recognise that not all pupils who are disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to use the pupil premium funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being vulnerable or disadvantaged.

Challenge number

Detail of challenge

1

Some Pupil Premium pupils are not yet making good progress in line with their peers.

2

Some PP pupils without SEN/D are not working at age-related expectations due to gaps in reading, writing, maths and phonics.

3

Some PP pupils experience lower levels of well-being as indicated by teacher assessment and pupil self-assessment using Leuvan Scales of well-being.

4

Some PP pupils have experienced adverse childhood experiences which result in difficulties in being ready to learn.

5

Some PP pupils have lower levels of attendance than their peers.

6

Some PP children do not access a broad range of culture and experiences and have reduced access to resources for learning.

Intended outcome

Success criteria

Cognition & Learning

PP pupils have access to high-quality evidence-based interventions, alongside strong quality first teaching

PP pupils will make strong measurable progress in their interventions, closing the gap between themselves and their peers

PP pupils without SEN/D will reach at least age-related expectations at the end of the academic year.

PP pupils without SEN/D will reach at least age-related expectations in reading, writing and maths in line with their peers.

PP pupils with SEN/D will make progress towards their agreed outcomes.

PP pupils with SEN/D achieve their short-term targets and progress towards their agreed outcomes.

Well-being

Social and emotional needs of PP pupils are met through a range of strategies and provision including:

• Playtime support or nurture.

• Internal wellbeing support through a range of programmes or personalised support provided by our two Emotional Literacy Support Assistants (ELSAs)

• External wellbeing support through counselling.

PP pupils with social &/or emotional needs will be able to independently implement strategies taught within those sessions to reduce anxiety, raise levels of wellbeing, attendance, and punctuality.

All teaching staff will be aware of the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and how to support adopted, fostered and troubled pupils to settle and learn through attachment awareness and trauma informed practices.

All staff will have an increased understanding of ACEs and their impact on upon a child. They will be using some attachment aware and trauma informed practises to help sooth children’s regulation systems so that the children can engage more effectively with learning.

Attendance

To achieve and sustain improved attendance for all pupils, particularly our disadvantage pupils

Attendance for all PP children will be good.

Access to Resources and Experiences

Pupils will be exposed to a wide range of social/cultural and sporting experiences Funding will be made available to those requiring financial support.

All pupils will participate in residential visits and school trips.

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Continued professional development to improve standards of writing by focusing on increasing children’s autonomy and awareness of how they learn - their metacognition. Embed “The Write Stuff” approach within the school.

Evidence suggests the use of ‘metacognitive strategies’ – which get pupils to think about their own learning – can be worth the equivalent of an additional +7 months’ progress when used well. Metacognition and Self-regulated Learning | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

1, 2

The embedding of the Spelling Shed scheme across KS2. Focusing on orthography, morphology and etymology of words, to improve the speed & accuracy of spelling of extensive vocabulary & increase fluency of writing.

EEF- Improving Literacy in KS2 Guidance states: ‘Fast and accurate spelling of an extensive vocabulary is a key component of writing fluency. Many of the skills that support word reading will also support spelling, but spelling demands great specificity and has different motor demands. There is limited high quality evidence about how to teach spelling, but it is clear that spelling should be actively taught rather than tested. The report goes on to identify the most common spelling errors as being phonological, orthographical, or morphological.

1, 2

Staff training to support the introduction of White Rose Maths, to accelerate progress through mastery learning in Maths across the school.

The EEF toolkit suggests that mastery learning accelerates progress. Work is challenging and is particularly effective when pupils work in groups and take responsibility for supporting each other’s progress:

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/teaching-learning-toolkit/collaborative-learningapproaches

https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/early-maths

1, 2

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Additional phonics sessions targeted at disadvantaged pupils who require further phonics support.

Phonics approaches have a strong evidence base indicating a positive impact on pupils, particularly from disadvantaged backgrounds. Targeted phonics interventions have been shown to be more effective when delivered as regular sessions over a period up to 12 weeks:

Phonics | Toolkit Strand | Education Endowment Foundation | EEF

1, 2

Booster groups & personalised intervention

Research which focuses on teaching assistants who provide one to one or small group targeted interventions shows a stronger positive benefit of between four and six additional months on average. Often interventions are based on a clearly specified approach which teaching assistants have been trained to deliver.

Teachers also report the benefits in terms of workload and reduced stress from working with teaching assistants.

In England, positive effects have been found in studies where teaching assistants deliver high-quality structured interventions which deliver short sessions, over a finite period, and link learning to classroom teaching.

Special Educational Needs in Mainstream Schools | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

Teaching Assistant Interventions | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

1, 2

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Emotional, Literacy, Support Assistant

Social and emotional learning - Improves interaction with others and self -management of emotions – impacts on attitudes to learning and social relationships in school, which increases progress in attainment. Teaching and Learning Toolkit (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

3, 4, 5

Lunchtime support

Social and emotional learning- additional lunchtime TA support on playground to enable effective play and behaviour support. Teaching and Learning Toolkit (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk)

3, 4, 5

Enrichment/ Cultural capital

Achievement and enrichment for all- possible music, sports lessons additional to core school provision. Closing the gap with the new primary national curriculum Final report V2 (publishing.service.gov.uk) Learning is contextualised in concrete experiences and language-rich environments. Ofsted research (2019) places emphasis on improving cultural capital, particularly for disadvantaged pupils. Pupil surveys reflect greater enjoyment and engagement in school. Enrichment activities offer children a context for leaning and a stimulus to trigger their interest which can be evidenced in pupil books and data.

3, 6

Financial Hardship

Rowntree Foundation- Uniform purchases, support in payments for educational visits and wider curriculum activities. The impact of poverty on young children's experience of school (basw.co.uk)

3, 6

Headlines:

• Figures below are based on 17 disadvantaged pupils- those eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and Looked After Pupils (LAC)/Previously Looked After Children (PLAC)

• The Jan 2024 School Census showed we had 8.3% pupils eligible for Free School Meals, compared with 26.6% in Kent, and 24.4% Nationally.

Provision & Impact:

We have analysed the performance of our school’s disadvantaged pupils during the previous academic year, drawing on national assessment data and our own internal summative and formative assessments. As a school with few disadvantaged pupils, we must always reflect on what the data is showing us, but also be mindful of how smaller numbers can skew percentages.

41.2% of Disadvantaged Pupils at St Katharine’s Knockholt in the Year 2023-2024, also had SEND.

1. Attainment of our disadvantaged pupils at end of KS2 in relation to achieving the ‘Expected Standards’ in Statutory National Assessments 2024:

• 50% of disadvantaged pupils achieved a ‘Good Level of Development’ at the end of in the EYFS: (50% of the disadvantaged pupils in this cohort had SEND)
• % of disadvantaged pupils passed the Year 1 Phonic check: (There were no eligible pupils in this cohort.)
• 100% of disadvantaged pupils passed the Year 2 Phonic Check Retake.
• 66.7% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the ‘Expected Standard’ in Reading at the end of KS2.
• 66.7% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the ‘Expected Standard’ in Writing at the end of KS2
• 66.7% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the ‘Expected Standard’ in Maths at the end of KS2
• 66.7% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the ‘Expected Standard’ in Grammar, Punctuation & Spelling at the end of KS2
• 66.7% of disadvantaged pupils achieved the ‘Expected Standard’ across Reading, Writing & Maths combined at the end of KS2. (33.3% of the disadvantaged pupils in this cohort had SEND)

2. Achievement of ALL our disadvantaged pupils in relation to achieving ‘Age-Related Expectations’- Internal tracking end of the academic year 2023-2024:

• 70.6% of all disadvantaged pupils achieved ‘age-related expectations’ in Reading.
• 47.1% of all disadvantaged pupils achieved ‘age-related expectations’ in Writing.
• 70.6% of all disadvantaged pupils achieved ‘age-related expectations’ in Maths.

The data demonstrated that the achievement of all our disadvantaged pupils in relation to achieving age-related expectations was up in Reading from 60% the previous year, to 70.6%. Achievement in Writing was up from 20% the previous year, to 47.1%. Achievement in Maths was up from 60% the previous year, to 70.6%.

3. Achievement of our disadvantaged pupils with no SEN in relation to achieving ‘Age-Related Expectation’- Internal tracking end of the academic year 2023-2024:

• 100% of disadvantaged pupils with no SEND achieved ‘age-related expectations’ in Reading.
• 70% of disadvantaged pupils with no SEND achieved ‘age-related expectations’ in Writing.
• 90% of disadvantaged pupils with no SEND achieved ‘age-related expectations’ in Maths.

Our data for the achievement of disadvantaged pupils with no SEND in relation to achieving age-related expectations, showed that achievement in Reading remained very high, with 100% achieving age-related expectations both last year & the previous year. Considerable improvement was made in Writing from 40% the previous year, to 70%. (This had been a focus for improvement). Achievement in Maths was up from 80% the previous year, to 90%.

4. Progress of our disadvantaged pupils- Internal tracking: (Expected Progress is measured as 6 steps progress from the end of the previous academic year, or 1 step for each short term if they transferred to St Katharine’s during the year)

• 94.1% of all disadvantaged pupils made ‘expected progress’ in Reading.
• 82.4% of all disadvantaged pupils made ‘expected progress’ in Writing.
• 88.2% of all disadvantaged pupils made ‘expected progress’ in Maths.

The data showed that the percentage of our disadvantaged pupils making expected progress in Reading had increased from 80% the previous year, to 94.1%. In Writing it was up from 70% the previous year, to 82.4%. In Maths, the percentage of pupils was similar; 90% the previous year, 88.2% in the academic year ending 2024.

5. Attendance of our disadvantaged pupils in the academic year 2023-2024

• 23.5% of our disadvantaged pupils had persistent absence. (However, this figure was skewed by 2 pupils, with extenuating circumstances.)

The data showed that the percentage of disadvantaged pupils with persistent absence fell slightly from 30% the previous year to 23.5%. (This figure would be 11.8% if calculated without the two pupils with extenuating circumstances.)

5. Our evaluation of the approaches delivered last academic year indicate that:

• A DfE validated systematic synthetic phonics programme & corresponding catch-up programme are embedded with new staff confident in delivering the programme. The overall percentage of pupils at the school passing the Year One Phonics Screening Check shows that school performed better than both local & national benchmarks. In the academic year 2023-2024 there were no pupils eligible for pupil premium in either the Year 1 cohort. 100% of pupils in the Year 2 Phonic retake achieved the pass mark. Data shows that our disadvantaged pupils made good progress in reading & those without SEND achieved age-relate expectations in line with of above their non-disadvantaged peers.

• Continued professional development on “The Write Stuff” approach within the school, (with its focus on increasing children’s autonomy and awareness of how they learn), is leading to improvements in the standards in writing. There has been a significant improvement in the percentage of all disadvantaged pupils, & those disadvantaged pupils with no SEND, achieving age-related expectations. However, the school will continue to strive to ensure that the percentage achieving age-related expectations is writing, is more in line with Reading & Maths.
• Analysis over previous years has shown that where pupils did not achieve the age-related expectations in Writing, that spelling was a significant factor. The purchase of and staff training on the use of a high-quality spelling programme to use across KS2 which focuses on orthography, morphology and etymology of words, is beginning to lead to improved speed & accuracy of spelling. This programme will continue to be embedded over the next year & the results of this are expected to be evident in future years.
• Targeted intervention programmes run by experienced TAs & HLTAs, either 1:1 or in small groups, have helped close gaps in learning in Phonics, Reading, Writing, and Maths.
• One teaching assistant with ELSA qualification continued to receive ongoing supervision from an Educational Psychologist. This provided opportunities for CPD & ensured support was well matched to children’s needs.
• Our Emotional Literacy Support Assistant (ELSA) delivered 1:1 and small group support for those pupils identified as requiring additional support for emotional well-being or social skills. We have been able to provide interventions tailored to the needs of individual pupils which has resulted in pupils developing greater resilience, increasing in confidence & self-esteem, & understanding their feelings so that they can better manage their emotions. Pupils who have participated in social skills or friendships skills groups are now more confident in their social interactions & have more positive playtimes as a result of ELSA provision. As one of our two ELSAs left the school, we are looking to develop another HLTA within the school to be trained for this role.
• Training for lunchtime TAs on how to support children to problem-solve difficulties & resolve disagreements on the playground, is enabling pupils to take greater responsibility in repairing breakdowns in communication. This is enabling those pupils who frequently seek adults to resolve issues for them, to be more confident & effective in expressing their feelings & needs in an appropriate manner, & to negotiate a solution with their peers.
• Internal training for TAs on awareness of Trauma/Adverse Childhood Experiences has led to improved staff awareness of the effect of ACEs on the developing brain, behaviour as communication, identifying pupils with ACEs and increased staff confidence in supporting identified pupils.
• Funding cultural activities has enabled pupils to benefit from opportunities which otherwise they might not experience and which enriched their cultural experience and learning.
• Funding school residential trips and uniform for identified pupils has ensured inclusivity.
• A Fegans counsellor provided 18 sessions to each of 3 vulnerable pupils, to support in managing anxiety, self-esteem building, and building resilience. This enabled the pupils to develop more effective coping strategies, & achieve higher levels of well-being.
• The data for persistent absence of our pupil premium pupils fell last year, with a greater percentage of pupils having good attendance. However, the data was adversely affected by two pupils who experienced significant or distressing upheaval in their family circumstances last year, which impacted on their ability to attend. These pupils were supported by Social Services or Early Help services. We continue to closely monitor the absence levels of each of our pupils, and work in partnership with parents to improve the attendance of specific pupils.

Based on all the information above, the performance of our disadvantaged pupils met our expectation, and we are at present on course to achieve the outcomes we set out to achieve by 2024-2025, as stated in the Intended Outcome section above.

Programme

Provider

Counselling

Spurgeons (formerly Fegans)

Measure

Details

How did you spend your service pupil premium allocation last academic year?

N/A

What was the impact of that spending on service pupil premium eligible pupils?

N/A