The Pupil Premium (also known as the Disadvantaged Premium) was introduced in April 2011 and is allocated to schools to work with students who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’). Schools also receive funding for children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months, and children of service personnel.

Pupil Premium, which is supplementary to main school funding, is designed to address the underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers, by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the students who need it most. Alongside this, Reading Girls' School (RGS) recognises that not all students who are socially disadvantaged are registered, or qualify for free school meals. Therefore the school reserves the right to allocate Pupil Premium to help support any student or groups of students, legitimately identified by the school, as needing additional provision to achieve improved outcomes in learning and/or wellbeing.

School Principles for the effective use of Pupil Premium Funding :

• The Leadership team and Inclusion Manager monitor and take responsibility for the effective use of PPI funding.
• RGS carries out a needs analysis based on student data and knowledge of students to identify appropriate interventions for individuals that will best meet their needs.
• RGS never confuses eligibility for the pupil premium with low ability, and focuses on supporting our disadvantaged students to achieve the highest levels.
• The school uses achievement data frequently to check whether interventions or techniques are working and make adjustments accordingly.
• All staff are informed which students are eligible for pupil premium funding so that they can take responsibility for accelerating their progress.
• RGS understands that there are many barriers to learning and progress which can affect young people and the programmes of interventions tackle a range of issues including:  social inclusion, emotional and behavioural issues and attendance in addition to teaching and learning strategies.

Catch Up Premium

Year 7 Literacy and Numeracy Catch Up Premium 

The Year 7 Catch-up Premium is a government initiative to help raise achievement of targeted students. 

The money is used to deliver additional tuition, intensive support in small groups and other initiatives to improve literacy and numeracy. Students at Reading Girls’ School receive interventions throughout Key Stage 3 to ensure they are making progress with regards to their annual target grades. Neither the government nor any government agency has dictated how the money should be spent.

The Year 7 Catch-up Programme aims to effectively target the students with specific additional support strategies alongside integrated whole school systems designed to benefit every student. The strategies, systems and procedures outlined in this report are a sample of some of the key initiatives undertaken. The key to narrowing the gap between the highest and lowest achieving students is careful and thorough monitoring/tracking of student attainment and progress. This is done through various targeted strategies that focus on students who need support in order to have better access to the whole curriculum.