Pupil Premium

Our ambition is for all children to leave St Meryl School having been inspired to become confident and successful learners, ready to explore their future as resilient and responsible adults. The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support pupil premium children to meet this goal, including those pupils who already attain highly.

 Educational research indicates that high quality teaching is the most important lever schools have to improve pupil attainment, including for disadvantaged pupils. (Education Endowment Fund – EEF). First-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach. Our curriculum is carefully constructed, taking into consideration cultural capital, diversity and equality and is implemented in order to prepare all pupils for the next stage of their education. We work hard to provide all pupils with a platform to flourish and contribute to the wider life of the school. Through our nurturing and pastoral ethos, we support our pupils to understand that there are challenges that they will need to overcome using strategies that are taught to develop resilience, which ultimately will help develop their ability to aim high throughout their lives.

 We are mindful of the well-being needs of our disadvantaged pupils. We acknowledge that whilst there are universal areas of need within this remit that can be met through well-thought out policies and pro-active provision, there will also be individual needs that will require a bespoke approach.

 Further, we recognise that our vulnerable pupils may not have access to a wide range of extra-curricular activities. To mitigate this for pupils in receipt of the Pupil Premium Grant we subsidise wider opportunities such as residential trips and educational visits. We seek whole-school opportunities, such as our broad music offer, that include all pupils and invests in their cultural capital. We proactively promote opportunities, such as clubs, to our disadvantaged children and consider the provision at play and lunchtime to facilitate attendance and engagement for pupils who are unable to join before and after school activities.

 Our approaches are always inclusive and non-disadvantaged children will also benefit from the strategies employed, in supporting our cohort of children entitled to pupil premium funding.