Pupil Premium Strategy

What is Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium is additional funding that the government gives to schools in England to help improve outcomes for pupils who face barriers to learning. These barriers can affect their progress, attendance, engagement, and overall achievement.

At Godmanchester Community Academy (GCA), this funding helps us make sure every pupil has the support they need to thrive, no matter their background.

Who attracts Pupil Premium funding?

Pupil Premium funding is allocated for pupils who:

are currently eligible for Free School Meals (FSM), or have been eligible at any point in the past six years
are, or have been, Looked After Children (LAC)
have been adopted from care
have parents serving in the Armed Forces

We also choose to use the funding to support pupils who are not formally eligible but face similar challenges.

How does GCA use its Pupil Premium funding?

At GCA, we follow a three-year strategy (2025–2028) and base our approach on the best available evidence and guidance from the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). Our aim is for disadvantaged pupils to achieve in line with their peers and to remove barriers to learning.

We use a tiered approach to ensure funding is effective:

1. Quality First Teaching

We prioritise high-quality classroom teaching because excellent teaching benefits all pupils and has the greatest impact on closing gaps. This includes:

Teaching staff training and professional development
Adaptive teaching strategies and structured curriculum routines
Shared responsibility for Pupil Premium progress across all staff

2. Targeted Academic Support

We provide focused support for pupils who need additional help to make good progress. This includes:

Small-group and one-to-one interventions
Before-school reading sessions
Tracking progress with clear SMART targets

3. Wider Strategies

We tackle non-academic barriers that can affect achievement, such as attendance, parental engagement, and wellbeing. This includes:

Attendance and engagement support
Family partnership and workshops
Equal access to trips, clubs and enrichment
Social, emotional and wellbeing support

All Pupil Premium spending is planned against specific challenge areas identified in our annual review, such as attendance gaps, attainment differences, parental engagement, and wider personal barriers to learning.

What are our goals through this funding?

We want every pupil who attracts Pupil Premium to:

Achieve academic standards in line with their peers across the curriculum
Attend and engage well with school life
Feel supported socially, emotionally, and in their learning journey

This includes progress in reading, writing, maths, and broader development areas such as confidence and participation.

How do we measure impact?

We measure the success of our approach using multiple sources of evidence, including:

Attainment and progress data
Attendance records
Classroom observations
Learning walks
Pupil and parent voice feedback

These measures help us check that our strategies are working and inform adjustments where needed.

Funding for 2025–2026

For the current academic year (2025–2026), Godmanchester Community Academy has received £111,768 in Pupil Premium funding.

Our Pupil Premium Strategy Statement is a three-year plan (2025–2028) that is reviewed annually to make sure spending continues to meet the needs of our pupils and achieves the best possible outcomes.