What is the pupil premium?

The Early Years Pupil Premium [EYPP] is additional funding that is allocated to nurseries to support children from low-income families. This includes families of looked- after children, families whose children are eligible for free school meals and children from service families.  The current funding is £302 per child for those who qualify. 

How much funding do both schools receive?  

• Dorothy Gardner School had 30 pupils who qualify (36%) of the roll. EYPP funds will be £9,060

• Mary Patterson School  had 15 pupils who qualify (21%) of the roll. EYPP funds will be £4,530 

This gives the schools £13,590 per year. Both schools have decided to work together to use this money to contribute to the costs of providing ‘Forest School’ experience for our children who qualify for the EYFF before they leave us and transition to primary school. The funding doesn’t cover the entire cost of Forest School but it helps us to be able to continue to provide it with consistently high quality teaching delivered by fully trained staff who have been trained by an accredited ‘Forest School’ training provider

Intent  ( Rationale)

What Are The Benefits of Forest School?  

Research based intervention.

L. O’Brien, Surrey, UK ‘Learning outdoors: the Forest School approach – A marvellous way to learn’ (2008), identifies the following benefits to pupils.

  1 -   Increased confidence to learn. As a result of the freedom, encouragement, time and space offered during Forest School, children learn at their own pace and level. Exploring repeated activities and making decisions about how they might complete their task enables deep learning and develops a positive attitude to the learning process. These attitudes and skills are the building blocks for future learning, we call this developing the Characteristics of effective learning.  

  2 -   Social skills Development. At Forest School children work together, sharing tools and ideas. Children learn about team work and the consequences of their actions on others. 

Supporting the research, our experiences over the years shows the following benefits.

Communication .  Language development is a key to future learning in young children. The experience of Forest School encourages communication for all children. Forest School takes place off site, on Hampstead Heath and offers children the opportunity to experience the outdoors and to interact with nature. Many of our children, living in the  inner city, may not have this opportunity. Our experience of taking young children to Forest School has shown us that even the most reluctant communicators have engaged well and been very keen to relay their learning to others through talk, role play or drawings.

 Motivation and Concentration.   When children are interested in what they are doing, they are motivated to learn and this leads to increased concentration. When a child is concentrating, the neural pathways strengthen in the young brain. The more the pathways are used, the stronger they become. 

 Physical benefits.   Many inner-London children do not have easy access to open, green spaces. Forest School is an excellent opportunity to provide them with this resource. As a result of being and exploring outdoors children develop stamina, strength and fine and gross motor skills, which in turn, help them access many other areas of learning.  Knowledge and Understanding.   Encouraging and supporting children to develop an interest in nature and a respect for the environment is an investment that will protect the natural world for future generations. Children in inner cities particularly benefit from the opportunity to experience this connection.  

Taking Risks .  Our culture has become more and more risk averse. When children are not offered appropriate opportunities to take risks and learn about the consequences of them, they become either fearful of risk and avoid it altogether or fail to recognise it when it needs to be managed. Managing your own exposure to risk is a life skill.   Forest School is a way of offering children risk-taking experiences in a supported learning environment. 

Implementation

Weekly planning for a group of children includes;

• How to keep safe and respect boundaries • How to be part of a team (sharing snacks, working collaboratively and listening to each other • Learn about the environment, respect nature and enjoy being outdoors- develop a sense of awe and wonder • Take considered risks, try new things and know their abilities and limitations. • Further develop their Gross and Fine Motor Skills ( walking long distances, climbing trees, developing upper body strength, tying knots, whittling sticks, sawing, mark making…) • Solve problems and use Maths in a practical context (measuring, making patterns, counting, constructing shelters, building dens and swings.) • Use technology to explore the environment – camera, Go-Pro cameras, and iPads. • Extend their role-play and imagination using the natural surrounding and available artefacts • Feel secure and confident to explore and investigate.

Impact 2019-2020

At both nurseries, 100% of our EYPP pupils made good progress or more in the 7 areas of learning in the EYFS, from their respective starting points. This was measured using Quantitative data against the Development Matters document of tracking. Qualitative data as evidenced by the children’s learning journey profiles which measure formative observational assessment. It should be noted that this academic year was interrupted on March 23^rd by a national lockdown due to covid -19.

Impact 2020-2021

At both nurseries, 100% of our EYPP pupils, in the Autumn and Spring Term,  made good progress or more in the 7 areas of learning in the EYFS, from their respective starting points. This was measured using Quantitative data against the Development Matters document of tracking, using a new system ( EXATT) , which allowed tighter measurement of progress as it measures in 3 monthly sections. Qualitative data as evidenced by the children’s learning journey profiles which measure formative observational assessment.

Both nurseries, supported by a local primary school( Queens Park Primary School) continued to support children of key workers  and  vulnerable children, identified under criteria of PP, FSM and safeguarding.

Forest school was cancelled in the Summer term and a Mental Health/ Wellbeing curriculum was put in place for EYPP children. PP children attended the provision FT and parents supported by daily hot meals for their children and a foodbank.

Summer term Impact for PP pupils. It was decided to measure impact in this very specific event, using Leuvens Scale of Wellbeing. The hub was kept open throughout all holidays. PP children received 16 weeks of support.

Low

Medium

High