The government invests money in schools via the pupil premium, which is additional to main school funding, because it believes it is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between disadvantaged children  and their peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.

At Kingsmead our intention is that all pupils, regardless of their background or challenges they may face, make good progress and attain highly across all subject areas. We ensure that teaching and learning meets the needs of all our pupils and a school-wide commitment to securing and raising achievement for disadvantaged pupils; this includes securing progress for those who are already high attainers and SEND children.

Kingsmead serves an area of high deprivation and dense social housing, the families we work with are increasingly marginalised as the demographics of the surrounding area change. Overcrowding, poor physical health, high levels of mental health issues and unemployment are higher than many other parts of the borough. During the recent lockdowns, most children experienced physical and emotional hardship as the conditions they lived in were not conducive to home learning. This makes our educational community more determined than ever to provide high quality learning experiences and a safe, happy environment for them to learn in. Quality first teaching is at the heart of improving outcomes for children and research evidence proves that this will have the greatest impact on closing any attainment gaps and will also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils at our school. We strive to what we know to be good practice, draw on research and ensure that our vision for improvement is clear. A strategic approach to professional development ensures that all pupils have access to high quality teachers and are supported by experienced and well-trained, committed support staff who understand the barriers to learning and how to support this in a school setting. Our Inclusion team work closely with families to remove barriers to learning. Throughout the pandemic all staff were determined and successful at providing food, technology and support to all our families at Kingsmead. Pupil Premium funding is allocated following a needs analysis which identifies priority individuals, groups or classes and also takes into account children with high needs. Our aims for disadvantaged children are:

• To address barriers to learning by providing alternative support and high-quality intervention within the school, especially those affected by the pandemic

• To reduce the gap in attainment between the school’s disadvantaged pupils, their peers and others nationally

• To encourage resilience, confidence and aspirations for all children by providing a rich, representative and relevant curriculum

• To provide a wealth of experiences that narrows the cultural capital gap upon entry and throughout their Primary journey

Our strategy is also responsive to the impact of the global pandemic and draws on the national plans for education recovery, particularly in the support offered through academic mentor and the school led tutoring programmes. The funds allocated through this initiative are targeted at pupils whose education has been most impacted, particularly disadvantaged pupils. In a school such as Kingsmead where over half the children are from disadvantaged backgrounds and the remaining children tend to be just above thresholds for this measure, everything is aimed at improving the children’s life chances and gaining the most positive outcomes attainable. The staff at Kingsmead work tirelessly to achieve this and it is central to the ethos of the school.

Our Executive Headteacher is a National Pupil Premium advisor and a National Leader of Education and carries out Pupil Premium reviews at a range of schools both locally and nationally. 

Please contact us at admin@kingsmead.hackney.sch.uk or by telephoning the main school number: 0208 985 5779 if you would like more information.

For more information on Pupil Premium please see https://www.gov.uk/pupil-premium-information-for-schools-and-alternative-provision-settings

To  find full details of how we spend our PPG and Recovery Funding please see the PDF titled Pupil Premium Strategy and Recovery Statement Kingsmead 2021 - 24 at the bottom of the Statutory Information page