Funding and Support for Pupils
Pupil Premium
What is the Pupil Premium Grant?
Pupil Premium is an additional sum of money allocated to schools by the Government for children of statutory school age from low-income families who are known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM) in both mainstream and non-mainstream settings; to children who have been looked after in the care of the Local Authority for more than six months and to children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces.
Pupil Premium also acknowledges pupils eligible for FSM at any point in the last six years (known as the Ever 6 FSM measure).
The Government believes that the Pupil Premium, which is additional to main school funding, is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for Free School Meals (FSM) and their wealthier peers by ensuring that funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most.
Please click here to access the Leicester County Council Free School Meals Website.
Pupil Premium Policy and Strategy
Click on the link below to see our current 'Pupil Premium Policy', which provides details about the school’s pupil premium strategy – how we have spent our Pupil Premium funding and the impact it has had on pupils. NB: The policy and the school’s pupil premium strategy is reviewed annually.
Pupil Premium Policy
Pupil Premium Strategy Statement 2024-2025
In order to close barriers, how has pupil premium money been spent at Orchard Primary School?
We work hard to improve the progress and attainment of all our students. The barriers to learning faced by our pupil premium pupils are the same barriers faced by a large number pupils and so we have taken a decision to treat all pupils as individuals and access their holistic needs whatever ‘group’ they belong to. However, we do consider the progress of all our groups and report specifically regarding pupil premium and non-pupil premium and other significant groups.
Staff have a very clear idea of each student’s individual needs and they try to support them effectively based on those actual and specific needs. Our pupil premium has therefore been used to either expand existing initiatives or to fund new strategies. We have to keep this under review – if we were not making an impact in a specific area then we need to reconsider and re-focus the spending.
To close the gap between pupil premium and non pupil premium cohorts, we focus on the following:
- Boosting literacy where appropriate
- Improving numeracy levels where appropriate
- Improving attendance to maximise opportunities to engage in learning and make progress
- Providing opportunities to raise pupils self-esteem and confidence, social skills and behaviour
- Helping pupils engage positively in learning, including supporting participation in extra-curricular activities
PE and Sport Premium Funding
How much funding the school receives
How the funding is used
The impact on pupils’ PE and sports participation
Sports Premium & Sporting Provision
Physical Education & Sports Provision
At Orchard Primary School we are passionate about PE, school sport and daily physical activity, long recognising the contribution of PE to the health and well-being of our children.
We also acknowledge that a broad, balanced, high-quality curriculum and a range of extra-curricular activities have a positive impact on concentration, attitude and achievement.
We are committed in ensuring that all pupils receive a minimum of 2 hours of PE per week, delivered by well-trained and enthusiastic teachers as well as our specialist sports coach, Wayne Morant.
School Games Mark - Platinum Award
We are proud to announce that we have been awarded the Platinum School Games Mark for 2023-2024 for the third renewal cycle running. We would like to say a huge thank you to the children, staff and parents/carers who help ensure that PE and sports provision at Orchard continues to go from strength to strength.
Competitions
The school participates enthusiastically in a range of local sports competitions and events against other schools in Leicestershire. Out of school events and competitions entered in the last academic year have included:
- Athletics
- Basket Ball
- Cross Country
- Cyclo-Cross
- Football
- Gymnastics
- Hockey
- Kwik Cricket
- Swimming
- Tag Rugby
- Tri-Golf
Orchard Sports Ambassadors
Children from Years 3 -6 have been selected to become Orchard Primary School’s Sports Leaders. They are full of ideas of how to improve sport at Orchard and they will be helping the staff promote healthy lifestyles at school. We are very proud of them and the hard work they do around the school.
During the year our Sports Leaders will be involved in the following:
- leading an all-day sports event
- development of sport across the school
- organising a charity sports event
- liaising with Adam our coach re: running sports clubs
- developing a space on the website, devising notices for the newsletter, assemblies …
Sports Day
Both KS1 and KS2 children take part in a sports day during the summer term and these both follow an athletics focus.
Sports Day allows the children to showcase their learning in the athletic disciplines. They also provide opportunities for Leadership and responsibility as older pupils help with the running of the KS1 event.
Pupils earn points for their House Team, resulting in the award of the Sports House Cup to the winners.
House Competitions Week
House Competitions Week. We organise an annual House Competitions Week in June to further promote competitive sport within our own school. This special week provides an opportunity for pupils to compete in a range of sporting activities including football, Hi-5, Dodgeball and the Mini-Olympics, as well as some more unconventional activities such as Blindfold Penalty Shootout! It also enables pupils to value the importance of teamwork as well as individual effort.
What clubs do we offer?
Outside Providers, Teachers and Support Staff provide a wide range of sports clubs, both for team and individual sports.
Please go to our 'Extra-Curricular' page to check out the current list of clubs:.jpg){kind=icon}
https://www.orchardprimary.org/extra-curricular-opportunities
The Government Sports Premium
The Government provides schools with a Sports Grant each year to spend specifically on improving the quality of sport and PE provision for all their children.
To view the Schools' Impact and Strategy Report, please click below:.png){kind=icon}
Sports Grant Impact Report and Targets for 2024-25.pdf