Pupil Premium Strategy 

At St Catherine’s, our Pupil Premium strategy is built on a clear commitment to ensuring that disadvantaged pupils achieve highly and access the full richness of school life. Our approach follows national best practice by prioritising high‑quality teaching, targeted academic support, and wider strategies that remove barriers to learning (EEF/Ofsted principles).

Our Aims

We aim for all disadvantaged pupils to achieve at least in line with others nationally in reading, writing and maths. We focus on strengthening early language, reading fluency, mathematics fluency, attendance, and inclusive support so that every child can thrive.

How We Use the Funding

We invest in:

• High‑quality teaching, including expert phonics training, mastery maths development, and the consistent use of the CUSP curriculum to improve vocabulary, comprehension and writing.
• Targeted support, such as small‑group tutoring, structured phonics and maths interventions, and specialist EAL support.
• Use of technology to improve rapid feedback, engagement and metacognitive skills across the curriculum.
• Wider support, including a Family Support Worker, emotional literacy provision, and full access to enrichment, clubs, cultural capital opportunities and extended swimming provision.

Why This Approach Works?

Our strategy is informed by the Education Endowment Foundation’s evidence base, which shows that:

• High‑quality teaching has the greatest impact on disadvantaged learners.
• Targeted small‑group and one‑to‑one interventions accelerate progress when taught by skilled adults.
• Attendance, wellbeing and family engagement play a crucial role in pupils’ academic success.

The Difference We Expect to See

By delivering a consistent, research‑led approach, we expect:

• Strong progress in reading, writing and maths, particularly for the lowest 20% of pupils.
• Improved reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension across the school.
• Greater mathematical fluency and confidence at all stages.
• Increased attendance, engagement and wellbeing for our most vulnerable families.
• Full access to enrichment opportunities, ensuring that every child experiences a broad and ambitious curriculum.

Impact We Have Seen

Across recent years, our strategy has led to strong and sustained outcomes for disadvantaged pupils:

• Reading and phonics are a significant strength, with disadvantaged pupils consistently achieving well above national disadvantaged outcomes. Year 1 phonics results have remained significantly above national for three consecutive years (91% and 93% vs 73% nationally). 
• KS2 reading outcomes for disadvantaged pupils exceed national figures, reflecting strong comprehension, vocabulary instruction and access to high‑quality texts.
• Maths outcomes remain above national disadvantaged benchmarks, with a three‑year average of 76% meeting expected standards (vs 60% nationally).
• Multiplication fluency is significantly above national, with Year 4 pupils achieving an average score of 23.0 compared with 20.2 nationally over three years. 
• Attendance for disadvantaged pupils is better than in similar schools, with persistent absence lower than comparable groups and some vulnerable cohorts achieving attendance above 97%. 
• Family engagement and pastoral support have strengthened, leading to improved stability, participation and readiness to learn. 
• Use of digital tools and CUSP has enhanced engagement and metacognition, with disadvantaged pupils demonstrating increasing confidence in acting on feedback and improving work. 

Together, these outcomes reflect a consistent, evidence-based approach that is helping to close gaps, raise attainment and ensure every child flourishes academically and personally.

For more detail please read the Pupil Premium Impact Statement below.