Pupil Premium

OSCA students will be

Compassionate      Happy            Leaders 

Proud            Independent team players         Ambitious  

Confident     Creative        Knowledgeable  

Resilient 

Able to determine their own future.

Raising Aspirations through effective Pupil Premium Spend at Ormiston Sandwell Community Academy

Senior Leaders refer to the EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit when planning the Pupil Premium spend. In particular, we are aware of the following themes which, feature in our long term strategic planning  and will impact on accelerating rates of progress and thus diminishing the difference:

· Mastery Learning (+5)

· Feedback (+8)

· Collaborative learning (+5)

· Homework (+5)

· Oracy (+5)

· Meta cognition (+5)

We will continue to conduct a rigorous process of self-evaluation to inform our strategic planning.  Our strategic review of 2022/23 highlights many positives including:

• A narrowing of the Basics 5+ attainment gap
• Exceptional attainment and progress in English
• Rising rates of attendance for all students and disadvantaged student attendance higher than the national average
• Improving literacy rates for ALL and especially disadvantaged students

In HT1 2022/23 we engaged in a meaningful consultation with students, parents/ carers and staff to understand challenges faced by our disadvantaged students.   As part of this process staff identified the following barriers for disadvantaged students:

• Low levels of aspiration
• Low levels of engagement, motivation and participation
• Lack of access to opportunities to develop cultural capital understanding and awareness
• Lower levels of literacy, numeracy and oracy
• High levels of social, emotional and mental health issues

Recovery Premium – Consultation

During HT1 2023/24 we invited staff, parents/ carers and students currently in receipt of Pupil Premium funds to evaluate our provision in order to plan more effective and OSCA context bespoke interventions.

Staff valued most highly those strategies that will raise aspirations for our young people.  At OSCA we believe that the curriculum is at the heart of raising aspirations and so will continue to invest in developing our curriculum implementation, in particular through assessment and reading. Parents valued the impact of spend on narrowing the vocabulary gap, oracy and reading.    

Staff felt that investment in technology was not a priority which is interesting as we emerge from the post pandemic era.   Parents, in particular, valued the impact of PP spend on CPD, subject expertise.  Our commitment therefore to recruitment and retention of the best teachers and developing pedagogy through sourcing first class CPD will continue to be prized in our wider PP planning.

Staff also felt that attendance rates and improving behaviour are priorities.  For this reason, we will continue to develop the capacity of our pastoral staff and establish the best pastoral structures to ensure all students attend as much as they are able to.  We will also continue to invest in a behaviour curriculum and in school support unit to ensure that routines are the norm and self-regulation achieved.

Staff and parents both valued the impact of spend when focused on improving student mental wellbeing.  For this reason, we will continue to invest in opportunities to enrich our curriculum experience, an academy counsellor and appoint a Family Support Worker to work with vulnerable families and young people.