Pupil Premium

The pupil premium provides additional funding to schools. Schools are free to spend the additional funding as they choose to raise the achievement of disadvantaged pupils.

It is based on numbers of children in these groups:

those eligible for Free School Meals
those whose parent(s) are in the armed forces
those who are 'looked after'

Or any child who has met any of the criteria above at any point in the past 6 years (Ever6)

The school aims to provide an extraordinary education that meets the needs of all learners and makes learning irresistible.

The focus for our pupil premium funding is to:

raise attainment
improve children's oracy
remove barriers to learning
broaden children's experiences of the world

We regularly review the of impact of our additional support to ensure it is meeting the needs of the children.

Pupil premium strategy statement 2025/26

This statement details our school’s use of pupil premium funding for the 2025 to 2026 academic year to help improve the progress and attainment of our disadvantaged pupils.

It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year and the effect that last year’s spending of pupil premium funding had within our school.

You can either download the report below or read it in full on this page.

2025-2026 Pupil Premium Strategy-3-year-plan

School overview

Pupil Premium data taken from the September 2025 Pupil Premium allocation spreadsheet from the DfE.

Detail	Data
School name	Windwhistle Primary School
Number of pupils in school	301 Not including Preschool
Percentage of Primary pupils eligible for the Deprivation Pupil Premium (%)	46.8%
Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers (3 year plans are recommended)	2023 – 2026
Date this statement was published	December 2025
Date on which it will be reviewed	December 2026
Statement authorised by	Heidi Hudd
Pupil premium lead	Paul Davis
Governor / Trustee lead	John Porter

Funding overview

Detail	Amount
Pupil premium funding allocation this academic year	£213,615.00
Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year	£0
Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years (enter £0 if not applicable)	£0
Total budget for this academic year	£213,615.00

Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan

Statement of intent

We have a whole school ethos of Aim High, Be respectful, Have fun and encourage all staff to convey positive and optimistic messages to every pupil in our school.

We have high expectations of everyone, from everyone and avoid stereotyping disadvantaged pupils as having less potential to succeed.

We promote the power of positive, growth mindsets in our disadvantaged pupils to help inspire them to see, and strive to meet, their full potential.

We focus on the quality of teaching and learning in order to meet the needs of all our pupils setting high expectations and standards of ourselves and each other. We foster a culture of early intervention using evidence and research to inform our teaching and learning.

‘A learning led approach, not a label led approach. Pupils are not at risk of underachievement because they are ‘Pupil premium’ or any other label, but because of the impact of socio-economic disadvantage on their learning over time. This is a long-term process, not an event.’ Marc Rowland

Our teachers and leaders collect, analyse and use data to identify pupils' learning needs and review progress regularly. Underperformance is addressed rapidly through additional support and carefully planned interventions.

We deploy staff effectively to work with pupils who need the most support and training is provided where this is necessary to support pupils' learning.

Attendance is addressed as a key priority and we have systems in place which carefully monitor, manage and supports good behaviour and attendance for all our pupils.

Every effort is made to engage and empower parents and carers in the education and progress of their child.

We believe in creating opportunities for our children through extra-curricular activities and additional classroom or school-wide roles and responsibilities to promote a sense of belonging and connectedness in our school.

We aim to instil an enduring passion for learning in all our pupils by providing a strong grounding in reading, English and mathematics including a broad base of skills and knowledge acquired across our rich and varied curriculum.

The ultimate objective for our disadvantaged pupils is to enhance attainment and improve learning outcomes and future prospects.

Challenges

This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.

Challenge number	Detail of challenge
1	Vocabulary, oral language, communication and early reading
2	Narrowing the attainment gap across Reading, Writing and Maths
3	Developing resilience and independence through metacognition
4	Attendance and punctuality
5	Parental Engagement
6	Behaviour management
7	External factors affecting children’s ability to learn or attend: quality of housing, access to services, availability of food or equipment. Families in this area are also more likely to be the victims of crime.

Intended outcomes

This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.

Intended outcome	Success criteria
Disadvantaged pupils will make good or better progress in reading - supporting vocabulary acquisition	• flexible intervention groupings – staff CPD • pupils will develop a love of reading • Daily 5 reading in EYFS • pupils will be at age related reading levels • pupils will pass the phonics screening check • Speech and Language sessions
Disadvantaged pupils will make good or better progress in writing and maths in line with national	• achieve national average progress / attainment scores in KS2 Writing • achieve national average progress / attainment scores in KS2 Maths
Disadvantaged pupils will have secure metacognitive strategies to support improved levels of resilience and independence in their learning	• engagement in lessons • greater independence and resilience • ability to use taught strategies to support learning • improved outcomes across all areas of learning
Improved attendance and punctuality with disadvantaged pupils’ attendance in line with non-disadvantaged pupils	• office to make daily calls to families who have a child, absent without reason
Persistent lateness will decrease over the 3year period	• attendance lead – weekly follow up check on attendance and issue letters
	• persistent poor attendance followed up with a visit from EWO
Intended outcome (continued)	Success criteria
There will be an increase in parental engagement	• parents/carers are aware of children’s attainment levels and how to support • full attendance at parent/teacher consultations and mid-reviews as necessary • engagement in school focus events including parental thrive and other pastoral activities
There will be fewer behaviour incidents and an ability to self-regulate	• pupils know strategies to selfregulate behaviour • PSHE curriculum supports teaching of positive behaviour expectations • decrease in recorded behaviour incidents on CPOMs • staff CPD

Activity in this academic year

This details how we intend to spend our pupil premium (and recovery premium funding) in the 2025/26 academic year to address the challenges listed above.

Teaching (for example, CPD, recruitment and retention)

Budgeted cost: £66,309.72

Activity	Evidence that supports this approach	Challenge number(s) addressed
Develop personalised programmes of professional development for all teachers	Programmes of professional development have been designed to meet the individual needs of staff to improve outcomes for children.	1, 2
Responsive HLTA/TA/LSA intervention	The average impact of the deployment of teaching assistants is approximately 4 months progress over the year. It is most effective when specific pupils are identified and their individual needs are met. (EEF) The impact would be that disadvantaged pupils will close the gap in their understanding across the curriculum.	1, 2
Metacognition strategies to develop learning behaviours	Effective learning strategies focus on various pedagogical approaches including meta-cognition and retrieval practice. Ensuring staff use evidence-based whole-class teaching interventions (EEF) CPD sessions for staff Training for leaders	1, 2, 3, 6
Behaviour management training - Whole staff training to support the development of our ethos and improving behaviour across the school	EEF (+3mths) Behaviour Interventions Specialist training to support whole school approaches and targeted behaviour interventions will result in positive outcomes.	6

Targeted academic support (for example, tutoring, one-to-one support structured interventions)

Budgeted cost: £ 89,295.69

Activity	Evidence that supports this approach	Challenge number(s) addressed
Oral language/vocabulary interventions Speech and Language interventions Targeted early phonics interventions EYFS/Year 1 Talkboost interventions (Reception and Year 1) Teaching approaches	EEF (+6mths) Oral language interventions is approximately an additional six months’ progress over the course of a year. Some studies also often report improved classroom climate and fewer behavioural issues following work on oral language. EEF Phonics (+4 mths) Approaches that focus on speaking, listening and a combination of the two all show positive impacts on attainment. Close the language gap by focusing on vocabulary to ensure disadvantaged pupils are more in line with peers.	1, 2
Targeted early reading and writing	EEF (+6mths) Successful reading comprehension approaches allow activities to be carefully tailored to pupils’ reading capabilities, and involve activities and texts that provide an effective, but not overwhelming, challenge.	1, 3
	Identified children – targeted support through 1:1/small group writing intervention.	1-7
Targeted early maths Work alongside the maths hub implement Mastering Number – early maths programme	EEF (+6mths) On average, early numeracy approaches have shown a positive impact on learning equivalent to approximately six additional months’ progress for early mathematics outcomes. The most effective early numeracy approaches include individual and small group work, and balance guided interaction with both direct teaching and child-led activities, depending on the age and capabilities of the child. Identified children – targeted support through 1:1/small group writing intervention.	3
Pastoral Lead Identified children – targeted support for SEMH. Parental engagement – building community.	Identified children – targeted support through 1:1/small group Pastoral Lead meets regularly with parents and conducts home visits daily to support attendance and other concerns.	3,4,5,6

Wider strategies (for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)

Budgeted cost: £61,984.73

Activity

Evidence that supports this approach

Challenge number(s) addressed

Raising % of attendance

for children in receipt of

PPG

Decrease in % of lateness

Pastoral lead to analyse attendance and meet with families of low attenders.

Office to follow the ELAN attendance protocols

Office staff and pastoral lead working alongside ELAN EWO to identify persistent late PP children and absences.

Whole data attendance shows an increase in gap between

disadvantaged and non- disadvantaged. Children with persistent absence have been identified.

4, 5, 6

Breakfast club

Support children’s readiness to learn

Improving attendance and punctuality

EEF (+2) focus on KS1 shows an

increase in attainment

Wider experiences and

access to resources

Greatest gains are likely to come in improving broad educational outcomes when thinking about 'the whole child' – including growing their cultural and social capital by offering a range of extra-curricular activities.

Year 6 Residential

Visits linked to the Opening Worlds humanities curriculum

Sporting events – Sports coach

SEMH and Cognition support

Identified disadvantaged children with SEND will access curriculum as appropriate

Range of strategies in place to include effective differentiation, use of preteaching skills, visual timetables, communication in print, sensory resources

Additional MAT specialist support

EEF (+4)

Social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions seek to improve pupils’ decision-making skills, interaction with others and their self-management of emotions, rather than focusing directly on the academic or cognitive elements of learning.

Volunteer Reading scheme

Identified disadvantaged children working below expected are given opportunities for extra reading

Additional opportunities to practise, apply and consolidate reading skills

Total budgeted cost: £ 217,590.14

Part B: Review of outcomes in the previous academic year - Pupil premium strategy outcomes

This details the impact that our pupil premium activity had on pupils in the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

Teaching: Academic Outcomes

Phonics pass rate at end of Year 1

2025: All children 51.2%, PP-eligible children 55.0%

2024: All children 41.9%, PP-eligible children 25.0%.

Multiplication Check outcomes at end of Year 4

2025: 28% achieved 25 marks (national average 37%); school average 18.3 (national 21.0) PP-eligible children, 24% achieved 25 marks.

2024: 3% achieved 25 marks (national 34%); school average 12.8 (national 20.6) PP-eligible children, 0% achieved 25 marks.

Key Stage Two outcomes increased from 2024 to 2025 but remain significantly below the national average. In Reading and Writing, Pupil Premium-eligible children attained above non-Pupil Premium-eligible children.

Reading Expected and above:

2025: All children 60.6%, PP-eligible children 64.7% 2024: All children 32.1%, PP-eligible children 25.8%

Writing Expected and above:

2025: All children 45.5%, PP-eligible children 64.7%

2024: All children 22.4%, PP-eligible children 19.4%

Maths Expected and above:

2025: All children 57.6%, PP-eligible children 41.2%

2024: All children 26.8%, PP-eligible children 19.4%

Support for Teaching

Pastoral Lead

The DSL safeguarding report to the governing body details the level of support to our families that we are able to provide as a consequence of the school’s Safeguarding and Pastoral teams.

Support from the pastoral team for children with social care involvement is significant: there is a heavier workload in this regard at Windwhistle Primary School than in many of our neighbouring secondary schools with much larger overall student cohorts. Many of our parents are also Care experienced themselves and we are able to support their role as parents, as well as the children directly. Within the school, in December 2025, we have the privilege of supporting:

Children Looked After 10 children 3.1% of all students (323 on roll)

Child in Need 10 children 3.1%

Child Protection 7 children 2.2%

The ability to fund a Pastoral Lead who is able to focus on this area is very important for the academic and success and wellbeing of the young people in our care. In May 2025, the North Somerset Safeguarding in Education Lead notified us that our Safeguarding audit response was one of the 25% of responses to the local authority deemed to be ‘Excellent.’

Wider Strategies

Attendance

2025/26: All children 92.50%, PP-eligible children 90.70% - to date, as of 25/11/2025

2024/25: All children 91.2%, FSM6 children 89.4% (IDSR 2024/25 data) 2023/24: All children 88.0%, FSM6 children 83.6%

The 2024/25 IDSR indicates that the attendance of children in the FSM6 group (which currently equates to PP-eligible children) has shown a relative improvement from 2023/24 to 2024/25 (partial data – two terms only). This trend has continued into 2025/26.

The 2024/25 IDSR indicates that persistent absence has significantly decreased from 2023/24 to 2024/25 amongst all pupils and in the FSM6 group.

Behaviour

Behaviour interventions, led by the Deputy Headteacher and Assistant Headteachers, with the Pastoral Team, have led to a sharp reduction in negative behavioural incidents, alongside a reduction in Suspensions and Permanents Exclusions (PEXs).

Suspensions reduced by 70.01% from 2023/24 to 2024/25

PEXs reduced by 75% from 4 permanent exclusions in 2023/24 to 1 in 2024/25

Breakfast Club

In 2023/24, we were able to offer toast or a bagel each day to identified children who requested the support. From the Spring Term of 2024/25, every pupil in the school is offered bagel or toast every day as a Universal Offer.

Children with an allocated social worker access Breakfast Club free of charge, regardless of categorisation.

Support for disadvantaged families beyond Pupil Premium funding

Members of staff organise the collection of Christmas presents for any family that would benefit from help in buying presents at Christmas.

We regularly collect food for the foodbank and distribute any food remaining at the end of term or nearing end dates, to any parent that would like to take it.

We work with HAF (the Holiday Activities and Food programme) to give all children entitled to free school meals access to free holiday activity clubs and family food parcels (including recipes and ingredients) during some school holidays.

Externally provided programmes

Programme	Provider
None

Service pupil premium funding (optional)

Measure	Details
How did you spend your service pupil premium allocation last academic year?	We currently do not have any Service pupils.