The King's (The Cathedral) School

Peterborough

The Pupil Premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers.

We acknowledge that there are many in our community amongst us who have had a disadvantaged start to life and this may impair their future development and indeed the possibility of achieving their own level of personal excellence. As an integral part of “family achieving excellence” The King’s School have an absolute and resolute commitment to ensuring our Pupil Premium students have access to the very best education during their time here with us.

Intent

Pupil Premium is an umbrella term covering various youngsters who have had a difficult start to life. The so called ‘closing the gap agenda’ is designed to allow these students the opportunity to catch up on learning that should have taken place in the years preceding Secondary School. It is designed in order for them to succeed both nationally and in school, in relation to their relative peers. This gap has widened significantly for some of our Pupil Premium students, due to the lost learning in the pandemic.

"It is vital that schools get this right. Every child who leaves school without the right qualifications faces a far more difficult path to fulfilling their potential and finding employment. We owe it to all our young people to ensure that they are given every chance to succeed." - quote from Sir Michael Wilshaw in the Ofsted 2012, Evaluation of the Pupil Premium Spending.

At Kings, we are “a family achieving excellence”, striving as a community to be “one body”. We value and strive to encourage individual academic success, through our nurturing and caring ethos. It is a place where all staff and governors work together to ensure that the best outcomes are achieved for our disadvantaged students by meeting their pastoral, social and academic needs. We can make the difference and inspire the disadvantaged students in our care to achieve their full potential.

Implementation

Our dedicated team of skilled Learning Mentors and specialist tutors hold a range of qualifications in their relative specialist subjects. They support, tutor and mentor our students across the school to enable them to make progress towards achieving their target grade and provide individualised intervention programmes in 1-2-1 or in small groups, as well as classroom support. 

In addition, Peer Mentors give identified Pupil Premium students in Key Stage 3 and 4 additional support to make progress towards achieving their target grade.

The Pupil Premium department also provides the following in addition to the academic support above:

  • Breakfast Club is offered to Key Stage 3 and 4 Pupil Premium students. This focuses on academic support to enable students to gain support with homework, organisational skills and a positive start to each day. 
  • Pastoral care is fully integrated into the structural organisation of the school, effectively meeting the personal, social and academic needs of the students. External agency involvement to help support students with a range of academic and non-academic challenges. 
  • Extra-curricular opportunities for students in receipt of free school meals to enable them to participate in all aspects of their education, including, educational visits, celebratory events, school uniform, peripatetic lessons and residential trips.

Impact

This details the impact that our Pupil Premium activity had on pupils in the 2022 to 2023 academic year:

  • Progress 8 score for Pupil Premium students was +0.39. This is higher than the national average.
  • 60% (12) of Pupil Premium students met entrance requirements for the Sixth Form at The King’s (The Cathedral School) and 35% (7) of students continued their education within the Sixth Form.  
  • 90% (18) of the 20 identified students in Year 11 achieved a Grade 4 or above in Maths and English.

The following are responses gathered from our student questionnaires:

  • "The gentle guidance and easier approach on things have enhanced my learning ability in 
    weaker areas"
  • "It has helped me understand things in Maths that I forget"
  • "My very helpful Maths mentor has improved my grades"
  • "I was able to remember parts that were particularly difficult for me"
  • "Mentoring has greatly increased my confidence in lessons"
  • "Mentoring has helped improve my grades drastically"

Key Contacts