Detail

Data

School name

Mosslands

Number of pupils in school 

1073

Proportion (%) of pupil premium eligible pupils

38.6

Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers (3 year plans are recommended)

2021-2024

Date this statement was published

November 2021

Date on which it will be reviewed

September 2022

Statement authorised by

 A Whiteley

Pupil premium lead

 G Evans

Governor / Trustee lead

 J Owens

Detail

Amount

Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year

£392,400

Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year

£53,940

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

£0

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

£446,340

Our intention is that all students at Mosslands, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, make good progress and achieve high attainment across the curriculum, particularly in English, Maths and Science.

The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve that goal, including progress for those who are already high attainers. We will consider the challenges faced by vulnerable pupils, such as those who have a social worker. The activity we have outlined in this statement is also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.

High-quality teaching is at the heart of 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 disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school. Implicit in the intended outcomes detailed below, is the intention that non-disadvantaged pupils’ attainment will be sustained and improved alongside progress for their disadvantaged peers.

Our strategy is also integral to wider school plans for education recovery, notably in its targeted support through the National Tutoring Programme for pupils whose education has been worst affected, including non-disadvantaged pupils.    

Our approach will be responsive to common challenges and individual needs, rooted in robust diagnostic assessment, not assumptions about the impact of disadvantage. The approaches we have adopted complement each other to help pupils excel. To ensure they are effective we will:

• ensure disadvantaged pupils are challenged in the work that they are set
• act early to intervene at the point need is identified
• adopt a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve

Challenge number

Detail of challenge 

1

The attainment of disadvantaged students is generally lower than that of their peers in English, Maths and Science. Assessments on entry suggest that 38% of our disadvantaged students arrive below age-related expectations compared to 26% of their peers. This gap widens at KS4 with only 51% of disadvantaged students attaining a 4+ in English and Maths compared to 67% for non disadvantaged.

2

Assessments, observations and discussion with KS3 students indicates that disadvantaged students generally have lower literacy levels than their peers.

This has an impact across the curriculum.

3

Our observations suggest many lower attaining disadvantaged students lack metacognitive /self-regulatory strategies when faced with challenging tasks, notably in their monitoring and evaluation of their answers. This applies across the curriculum 

4

Our assessments, observations and discussions with students, families and external partners suggest that education and well-being of our disadvantaged students have been impacted by school closures during the pandemic to a greater extent than other students.

Following the re-opening of school issues have been raised about the regaining our school ethos and the behaviour of our students at unstructured times.

5

Our assessments including, observations and discussions with pupils and families have identified social and emotional issues for many pupils, such as anxiety, depression (diagnosed by medical professionals) and low selfesteem. This is partly driven by concern about catching up lost learning, exams, prospects, and the lack of enrichment opportunities due to the pandemic. These challenges particularly affect disadvantaged pupils, including their attainment.

Referrals to Student Services are increasing, entries to CPOMS are increasing and the number of cases reported through Operation Encompass are also increasing. These increases whilst affecting the mental health of our students is also impacting on their academic progress. 

6

Our attendance data for the past two years highlights difficulties we face in ensuring our students attend regularly. This applies to disadvantaged students and non-disadvantaged students. Absenteeism impacts greatly on academic progress for all students.   

Intended outcome

Success criteria

Improved attainment among disadvantaged students across the curriculum at the end of KS4.

By the end of our current plan in 2024/25 we aim to close gaps in attainment 8 between disadvantaged pupils and those who are not.

Improved reading comprehension among disadvantaged pupils across KS3

Reading comprehension tests demonstrate improved comprehension skills among disadvantaged pupils and a smaller disparity between the scores of disadvantaged pupils and their nondisadvantaged peers. Teachers should also have recognised this improvement through engagement in lessons and book scrutiny.

Improved metacognitive and self-regulatory skills among the disadvantaged across all curriculum areas.

Teacher reports and class observations suggest disadvantaged pupils are more able to monitor and regulate their own learning. This finding it supported by homework completion rates across all classes and subjects

Improved school ethos and improved behaviour at unstructured times.

Student voice including Year and School Council feedback.

Increase in student participation of Track sessions and extra-curricular activities including trips and breakfast club.

Decrease in the number of incidents relating to issues at unstructured times, including incidents reported in the community. The tracking of evidence looking at structured and unstructured times and the number of incidents concerning disadvantaged students compared to non-disadvantaged.

To achieve and maintain an improvement in student well-being for all students including those who are disadvantaged.

Decrease in the number of referrals to Student Services. Entries to CPOMS also to show a decrease in number. NEET Figure 

 Increase in student participation of Track     sessions and extra-curricular activities including trips and breakfast club.

Evidence from Student Services regarding

access to services including group work, external agency work.

To achieve and sustain improved attendance for all students, particularly our disadvantaged students.

Sustained high attendance by 2024/25 demonstrated by 

• the overall absence rate for all students being reduced to national target levels. 
• the percentage of all students who are persistently absent being below national and the figure among disadvantaged students being in-line with non-disadvantaged. 

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Improving literacy in all subject areas in line with

recommendations in the EEF Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools guidance.

We will fund a lead member of staff to lead on the impact of this activity.

Acquiring literacy is key for students as they learn new, more complex concepts in each subject: Improving Literacy in Secondary Schools

Reading comprehension, vocabulary and other literacy skills are heavily linked with attainment in maths and English:

word-gap.pdf (oup.com.cn)

1, 2, 3 

Developing metacognitive and self-regulation skills in all pupils. 

This will involve ongoing teacher training

Teaching metacognitive strategies to pupils can be an inexpensive method to help pupils become more independent learners. There is particularly strong evidence that it can have a

1, 2

and support and release time. 

positive impact on maths attainment: 

Metacognition and self-regulation |

Toolkit Strand | Education

Endowment Foundation | EEF

TRACK – Develop an internal programme to re-build ethos postpandemic around the key characteristics of

Teamwork, Respect Ambition, Community and Knowledge.

(TRACK)

The impact of the pandemic seriously affected the ethos of the school and its role within the community.

This will also impact on the behaviour of students at unstructured times.

2,3,4,5

Purchase of standardised diagnostic assessments. 

Training will be

provided for staff to ensure assessments are interpreted correctly.

The use of data will be monitored through SISRA AND FFT in

particular to monitor the progress of disadvantaged students and ensure gaps do not develop

Standardised tests can provide reliable insights into the specific strengths and weaknesses of each pupil to help ensure they receive the correct additional support through interventions or teacher instruction:

Standardised tests | Assessing and

Monitoring Pupil Progress | Education

Endowment Foundation | EEF

1, 2, 5, 6

Use of remote learning to enable students to access curriculum materials and address gaps in knowledge and understanding

Planned in line with DFE guidance on best practice for remote learning provision.

Schools review remote education provision

1, 4, 5

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Engaging with the

National Tutoring Programme to provide a blend of

Tuition targeted at specific needs and knowledge gaps can be an effective method to support low attaining pupils or those falling behind, both one-to-one:

1, 2, 5

tuition, mentoring and school-led tutoring for pupils whose education has been most impacted by the pandemic. A significant proportion of the pupils who receive tutoring will be disadvantaged, including those who are high attainers.

One to one tuition | EEF (educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk) And in small groups:

Small group tuition | Toolkit Strand |

Education Endowment Foundation | EEF

AP to provide appropriate provision for students who are unable to engage with mainstream provision

Based upon our experiences some students are unable to access full time mainstream school. The access to an Alternative Provision is crucial in allowing these students to develop. Provision quality

assured OFSTED Oct 2021

4, 5, 6

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Embedding principles of good practice set out in DfE’s Improving School Attendance advice.

Employ attendance improvement team to monitor attendance pattern and intervene as appropriate

The DfE guidance has been informed by engagement with schools that have significantly reduced persistent absence levels.

6

Improve pastoral support system to ensure capacity to impact the wider TRACK ethos programme

The reporting of the impact of the pandemic on our students is widely reported. This requires attention through the TRACK time and the need to address behaviour during unstructured time.

4. 5

Our internal assessments during 2020/21 suggested that the performance of disadvantaged pupils was better than in the last externally assessed year in key areas of the curriculum, but a similar progress gap compared to non-disadvantaged pupils remains as their performance has also shown improvement. 

Our assessment of the reasons for these outcomes points primarily to Covid-19 impact, which disrupted all our subject areas to varying degrees. As evidenced in schools across the country, partial closure was most detrimental to our disadvantaged pupils, and they were not able to benefit from our pupil premium funded improvements to teaching and targeted interventions to the degree that we intended. The impact was mitigated by our resolution to maintain a high-quality curriculum, including during periods of partial closure, which was aided by use of online resources and the quality of the on-line learning provision.

The impact of Covid-19 on attendance and the resulting anxieties has posed significant difficulties to school over the past two years. This applies to all students. Absenteeism impacts greatly on academic progress. Previous work to tackle attendance issues particularly in the disadvantaged is now even more important.  

Our assessments demonstrated that pupil behaviour, wellbeing and mental health were significantly impacted last year, primarily due to COVID-19-related issues. The impact was particularly acute for disadvantaged pupils. We used pupil premium funding to provide wellbeing support for all pupils, and targeted interventions where required. We will continue to build on this work in the new plan. 

The number of students attending school daily was more than 120. During this period the students were provided with a structured timetable. Physical exercise was timetabled daily. The students were also given breakfast and lunch.

The school also ensured students received food vouchers and/or food deliveries during this period.

In response to the requirement to deliver remote learning the school ensured the safe delivery of laptops including the servicing and maintenance of the machines by the school’s ICT technicians.

The development of Online learning and Online safety was equally important. The school purchased membership of the National Online Safety and developed not only

the student’s awareness of the issues but provided a huge range of CPD opportunities for staff. Two members of staff were promoted to develop the online learning experience for both students and staff.

The school provided a range of tutoring and small group provision during the reopening period after lockdown.

The school has developed partnerships with Alternative Provision providers to ensure that students who were struggling to engage with a mainstream school or curriculum were provided with a suitable alternative. The school also provided some of the students with additional tutoring and appropriate transport support.

Programme

Provider

Alternative Provision

WRAP, IMPACT and UTOPIA