Removing barriers. Raising expectations. Helping every child flourish.

At Captain Shaw's, our starting point is simple: a child's circumstances should not determine what they are able to achieve.

Pupil Premium is additional government funding provided to schools to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. We use this funding as part of our wider commitment to inclusion – identifying the barriers that may make learning or participation more difficult and taking thoughtful, evidence-informed action to reduce them.

This connects directly with our school vision:

Serving the Common Good
Seek what is best for everyone, beginning with the last, the least, the lost, the most vulnerable and the most forgotten.

For us, Pupil Premium is therefore about much more than closing a set of attainment figures. It is about ensuring that every child can belong, participate, learn, achieve and flourish.

Our approach

We do not assume that all disadvantaged children have the same needs.

We begin by knowing our children well: their strengths, their learning, their experiences and any barriers that might be getting in the way. We then use assessment, professional judgement, pupil and family voice and the best available evidence to decide what will make the greatest difference.

Our approach has three connected priorities:

1. Excellent teaching for every child

The most important thing we can provide is consistently excellent classroom teaching.

Our Pupil Premium strategy therefore connects closely with our Inclusion Framework and the evidence-informed classroom practices our teachers continually develop. These include explicit teaching and modelling, vocabulary development, retrieval, careful scaffolding, checking for understanding, managing cognitive load, purposeful feedback and developing children's independence.

This means strengthening everyday teaching so that children who may face disadvantage benefit from excellent provision alongside their peers.

2. Targeted support where it is needed

Sometimes excellent classroom provision needs to be supplemented with something more specific.

This might include carefully chosen academic intervention, additional practice, support with communication or language, social and emotional support, attendance support or working with families and other professionals.

Any additional provision should have a clear purpose. We ask not simply "What support did we provide?", but "What changed for the child because of it?"

3. Access, opportunity and belonging

Disadvantage can create barriers beyond attainment.

We want every child to be able to participate fully in the life of Captain Shaw's – including our curriculum, visits, clubs, sport, outdoor learning, performances and the community projects that make our curriculum distinctive.

Where cost, circumstances or another barrier could prevent a child from participating, we consider how that barrier can be reduced.

One school, not separate provision

Pupil Premium does not create a separate curriculum or a different set of expectations for particular children.

Our ambition remains high for everyone.

Some approaches funded through Pupil Premium may benefit an individual child; others may strengthen teaching or provision for a group or whole class. Government guidance specifically allows Pupil Premium to support approaches that benefit other pupils where they also address the needs of disadvantaged pupils.

This reflects how inclusion works at Captain Shaw's: we begin with those who may face the greatest barriers, while improving provision for everyone.

How do we know it is making a difference?

We review the impact of our Pupil Premium strategy carefully.

Alongside academic progress and attainment, we consider the things that help children succeed over time: their participation, attendance, confidence, independence, engagement with learning and access to the wider opportunities available through school.

We listen to children and families, evaluate the quality of provision and adapt our approach when something is not having the intended impact.

Our Governing Board provides strategic oversight and challenge, including considering how funding is being used and the difference it is making.

Our small-school context

Captain Shaw's is a very small school and consequently receives a relatively small Pupil Premium allocation. We do not create separate provision for children simply because they are eligible for Pupil Premium. Instead, we know our children individually and use the funding flexibly in response to the barriers and needs we identify.

For 2026/27, our Pupil Premium allocation is based on four eligible pupils. Under current Department for Education requirements, schools whose allocation is based on five or fewer eligible pupils are not required to publish a Pupil Premium Strategy Statement.

However, we believe it is helpful for families and our wider community to understand how we use this funding. We have therefore chosen to publish our strategy voluntarily as part of our commitment to openness and accountability.

In doing so, we are mindful of our responsibility to protect individual children. In a school of our size, detailed information about a very small group can sometimes make individual pupils identifiable, particularly when combined with other information already in the public domain. Our published strategy therefore explains our priorities, planned use of funding and overall approach to evaluating impact without reporting unnecessarily granular information about individual pupils or very small groups.

Our governors receive appropriate information to enable them to scrutinise the use and impact of Pupil Premium funding while maintaining pupil confidentiality.

You can read our 2026/27 Pupil Premium Strategy Statement below.