The GCSE 2024 data demonstrates no significant attainment gap in achievement. The Progress 8 score was 0.91 for pupil premium students versus 1.06 for non-pupil premium students. In Maths pupil premium students scored 0.78 compared to non-pupil premium students scoring 0.95, whereas in English pupil premium students scored 0.94 versus 0.82. The strategies used to raise the achievement of all students and narrow the gap between pupil premium students and non-pupil premium students are working and need to be maintained, as well as exploring subject variations which exist.

During the academic year 2023-24, the PPG was used in a variety of ways to support students to close the gap in engagement with super-curricular and extracurricular opportunities. As a result, it reinforced aspects of our School Development Plan: providing excellent teaching and learning, character development and wellbeing for all students. Examples of super-curricular resources which were made available to students include Educake; an online platform which offers revision materials and recap quizzes to help develop memory and retrieval. There is a wide range of extra-curricular opportunities that are available to students and attendance is high. 47% of Pupil Premium students attend at least one club, compared to 50% of non-Pupil Premium students, which is a slight increase from last year. The offer for students continues to develop and more students are setting up their own clubs for other students. Further to this we offer financial support to start the year well, with uniform funding as well as on-going termly financial support for travel and stationery.

This year, the low stakes activities within lessons have been embedded as starter activities and assessments were developed by be cumulative and support retrieval practice, as well as continued CPD regarding retrieval practice and methods such as whole school mini whiteboards to promote feedback opportunities. This has had positive results in attainment, as well as contributing towards supporting students with managing anxiety levels. With this way of contributing to lessons students can share their ideas and thoughts without feeling on the spot and this has enabled students to extend themselves, as well as providing instant feedback to both the teacher and students. Our Personal Development programme incorporates study skills sessions in Year 10 which covered: practice, using feedback, extended writing, memory, chunking and vocabulary development and hosted specialist workshops for Years 10 and 11 with regards to being “exam ready” and an external company has delivered strategies to manage revision, preparation and examination anxiety.

Year 12 GCSE subject-specific mentoring Year 11 students is now a permanent part of our provision, as Year 11 students reflected that they feel their learning improved and their confidence was also improved from peer mentoring.

Of the students who were receiving additional safeguarding or pastoral interventions during 2022-23, 11% were pupil premium students compared to 29% of non-pupil premium students. Into 2023-24 this has dropped for both groups, 2% of pupil premium students and 22% of non-pupil premium students were receiving additional safeguarding or pastoral interventions. The student support provision was reviewed termly to ensure that support is in line with students’ needs. We have also continued with the annual school survey, in March 2024, and this data continues to inform our next steps with developing our student provision. This survey showed a maintained proportion (86%, the same as 2023) of the student population feels that school encourages them to look after their emotional and mental health.

As restricted access to IT resources can be a barrier to students’ progress, we have continued to narrow any digital divide for students, to support learning outside of the classroom. All GCSE pupil premium students are checked to ensure they have digital access at home and school has provided a laptop if this has not been the case. As other requests have come into school we have, so far, been able to offer the loan of a laptop to support learning outside of the classroom. All students have been informed of the filtering and monitoring standards within school and that there are systems in place for safeguarding purposes. We have surveyed the key digital skills which are utilised across all subjects and all year groups and our provision supports students to develop skills in Microsoft Word, Powerpoint and in conducting reliable online searches.

We have established parent/carer surveys which are issued in conjunction with Progress Evenings which allows us to gain feedback from families, as well as offering another opportunity for families to ask questions. From these surveys, we have been able to address specific queries and we also sent an email to answer frequently asked questions and share more information about our school and the opportunities available.