Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) was introduced for 3 and 4 year old children in nursery schools in April 2015. We receive extra funding of £353 per year (a rise since 2023 from £302) for our eligible children. It has been put in place by the Government to support “disadvantaged” children and narrow the gap between children in receipt of EYPP and those that are not, therefore providing more targeted work.
Our most ‘disadvantaged’ children are those eligible for the NEG grant for 2 year olds and also families with children with SEND. We see other factors as well impacting on families and making them vulnerable for example homelessness. Some of these families are eligible for pupil premium some are not. We know that many young children eligible for the Early Years pupil premium and other vulnerable children enter nursery provision at the early stages of language development. Children who attend Kay Rowe enter at an average of 22-36 months, which is below age related expectations and this follows the national picture.
We know this picture has been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with even greater concerns over young children’s communication and language development.
We have a strong commitment to offering children at Kay Rowe a really rich experience exploring the world around them indoors and especially outdoors. We provide a rich, stimulating and challenging environment conducive to young children’s learning. We acknowledge the learning and community knowledge families bring with them and by sharing knowledge together we can build up children’s social and cultural capital and narrow the gap between children in receipt of EYPP and other vulnerable children and those that are not.
Curriculum
The prime areas of learning – Personal, Social and Emotional, Communication and Language and Physical development along with the area of Understanding of the World underpin this programme and the children’s learning and development. We also focus on developing children’s self-regulation and the Characteristics of Effective Learning. We have developed our own curriculum goals which support children to develop and build up skills.
Forest School
We are working towards having 3 trained forest school leaders. This will not just enable us to go out to the Forest but to really embed our Forest school ethos in our nursery garden. Working with a Froebel trust grant we run Forest school sessions at the weekend for EYPP and other vulnerable families to experience the natural world at first hand.
We see first hand that Forest school develops children’s self-confidence, self-esteem and allows them to take risks through activities such as building fires, outdoor cooking, using tools and exploring additional outdoor environments. We see huge benefits for children’s language development, new vocabulary is learnt quickly and used in context in Forest school.
Cooking
Our cooking curriculum teaches children skills and develops knowledge, it also supports children to connect home and school and supports their self confidence in talking about home
Gardening
Working alongside the local community garden and with parents input we have developed a stronger commitment to gardening. Some of our EYPP funding last year paid for families to take home gardening packs and grow seeds with their children at home in a garden or on window sills
Scientific Enquiry
We use our outdoor area as an opportunity to explore life cycles observing tadpoles developing into frogs, pupae into ladybirds and butterflies, changes in the weather and seasons, observing bugs at close hand, watching plants grow.
Impact and Outcomes
We aim for our provision to support children to develop across the breadth of the curriculum, making substantive progress in their learning and achievements.
The evidence demonstrates that children receiving the Early Years Pupil Premium at Kay Rowe Nursery School make major progress in closing the gap between the EYPP and non- EYPP children so that there is now no significant difference in attainment.
Monitoring, Assessment and Evidence
- Termly pupil progress meetings and reflective pupil discussions.
- Individual pupil
- Regular cohort monitoring
- Robust monitoring of assessments such as observations and online journals
- Case studies.
- Parent questionnaires
- Observations of practice and learning walks
- Governor monitoring
- ECERS and ITERS audits
What we are doing to support this programme
- Staff training – More staff trained as Forest School leaders, Froebelian approaches, block play, assessment, I can training
- Networking with other providers
- Leadership of the provision – SLT lead strategic development, class teachers lead planning and development
- Involving parents in activities, outings and their children’s progress
- Development of home learning resources. We put together home learning packs and also use Boromi resources for children with pupil premium where there are few play resources at home.
Links to other work
- Children’s Centre gardening project
- Staff well being project
- Links to local community garden
Early Years Pupil Premium Funding at Kay Rowe Nursery School
| Financial Year | EYFS Pupil Premium Amount (£302 per child) | Number of EYPP children |
| 2020/21 | £4228 | 14 |
| 2022/23 | £7413 | 21 |
Current funding is allocated to the following:
Staffing and activities:
Additional hours to release experienced staff for teacher-led activities.
Forest School Leader training and weekly sessions with high adult-pupil ratio to allow for quality experiences.
Fully funded educational visits to widen experiences for child and parent – Kew gardens, Beach visit.
Free lunch provision sessions in summer term for part-time pupil premium children to support their transition to full-time school.
Resources:
Learning packs when needed.
Costs for taking children on outings.
Trips to the local area, beach, parks, museums and staffing on visits.
Travel and food costs, supporting parents to attend visits.
Forest School and gardening resources.
Costs of providing lunch and staffing at lunch sessions for part-time pupil premium children.
Free lunch for pupil premium children.
