Each year the Welsh Government release grant funding to schools to support tackling the effects of deprivation on pupil attainment. The funding is based on the number of children receiving Free School Meals (FSM) in our School. Whilst we have relatively small numbers of children receiving Free School Meals, the funding received is used to support their learning in groups throughout the school, and so impacts on wider groups of pupils also.

In 2022/23 the PDG grant was used to support and develop staff training to support pupil well-being. Targeted challenge and intervention groups provided support for vulnerable groups of pupils (FSM, rural deprivation) to achieve at the expected outcomes, or higher in English and Maths. Staff received training facilitate interventions to cater for individual need. 

To evaluate impact against these aims the school developed Pupil Progression Profiles (PPPs) to track and capture the performance of each pupil developing an informative picture of summative and formative assessment.  In addition to this parents/carers and children shared their personal contributions to develop a detailed picture of the learner.  

Additionally, Gwent Music supported the cohort to access creative arts projects that impacted positively on their confidence, well-being, literacy and ICT skills.

In 2023/24 the PDG grant has been allocated to invest in improving the capacity and to upskill staff knowledge when supporting and challenging learners.  FSM/Vulnerable pupils are a priority to ensure they have the strategies and interventions to meet their aspirational targets.

All pupils benefit from working in small groups to consolidate concepts and misconceptions within mathematics and numeracy and language, literacy and communication.  Staff training has been sought to provide educational professionals with greater expertise when delivering support programmes in Literacy, Numeracy, ICT skills, Communication intervention, and well-being. 

The pupils' achievements will be tracked throughout the year to measure the impact of the support provided by the trained members of staff. The school will use Granda Learning (GL) assessments to track pupils' progress across all areas of learning and experience.

For further information about the PDG funding and grant funding for pupils, please see our Annual Report to Parents. If you would like further information, please contact the school office. Thank-you.