Pupil Premium is more than just free school meals. The Pupil Premium entitles your child to free school meals (worth over £400 a year) and in addition provides the Academy with crucial funding (up to an additional £1,320 per eligible student). It is essential that, if your child is eligible* for the Pupil Premium, you apply for free school meals (even if they are an infant who already receives free school meals or if you have no intention of taking up free school meals). This ensures that both your child and other students in the Academy are able to benefit from the additional funding the Pupil Premium generates.
*Eligible families are usually in receipt of working tax credits or other benefits, or have a household income below £16,190.
Bede Academy became one of the most improved schools in the country in terms of attainment and value added progress of disadvantaged students since 2012. This resulted in winning the local Key Stage 4 category of DfE Pupil Premium Awards in 2017.
In 2016 Bede Academy was the top performing school in Northumberland for disadvantaged students both in terms of Progress8 and Attainment 8. The Academy ranked 2nd in terms of the proportion of students successfully achieving the EBacc. In 2018 Bede Academy was in the top 20% of all schools for disadvantaged Progress8
Destinations for disadvantaged students continue to demonstrate the impact of high quality CEIAG and aspirations. In 2018, 60% of disadvantaged students in Key Stage 5 progressed to University, and in Key Stage 4 100% of disadvantaged students went on to further study. There were no students leaving the Academy NEET at any Key Stage.
Pupil Premium Intent
Our Pupil Premium strategy plan does not exist in isolation from the Bede Academy Development Plan. Our core belief is that all students, regardless of their background and life experience, can achieve highly and can be taught the confidence and range of skills needed to stand as equals in any circle, and for any opportunity. We expect every student to work towards securing ambitious curriculum goals across a broad range of subjects, including the arts and modern foreign languages.
Equity lies at the heart of our curriculum intent and eradicating disadvantage is a core priority.
High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach to tackling disadvantage, with a focus on collaborative lesson design through the lens of the most vulnerable learner to ensure that all students, particularly those in vulnerable groups, are supported to attain highly.
We believe that the curriculum in its entirety, including the co-curriculum, is the right of every student and we work hard to eradicate barriers to access. We hope to take students beyond their own experience by creating transformational and inspiring opportunities.
We engage at a local and national level with leading thinkers in relation to tackling disadvantage in the classroom and apply research informed approaches to poverty proofing the curriculum. These include embedding metacognition, the explicit teaching of vocabulary, careful consideration of hinterland curriculum and developing effective use of feedback.
Whilst the curriculum and its effective implementation is at the heart of our approach to tackling disadvantage, we also use a range of academic support to enable students to catch up or to accelerate progress. These include 1-2-1 and small group tuition, and targeted short-term interventions as a response to diagnostic assessment.
Our approach to wider support is led by an acute understanding of the actual barrier’s students and their families in our community are facing, rather than assumptions about the impact of disadvantage. We use a place-based theory of change to listen to, understand, and respond to the effects of disadvantage in our community, bringing local stakeholders together to act strategically for the good of the whole community.
