Peartree Way Nursery School
Peartree Way Stevenage
Hertfordshire SG2 9EA
Telephone: 01438 353897
Parents and members of the public should address any queries to:
Our Headteacher: Mrs Deborah Willcox, Headteacher (head@peartreeway.herts.sch.uk)
Our Chair of Governors: Mrs Kathryn Evans (k.evans@peartreeway.herts.sch.uk)
Our SENCo: Mrs Sian Gardiner – (SENCO@peartreeway.herts.sch.uk)
Our Data Protection Officer: Richard Maskrey (richard@schoolconsulting.co.uk)
Admission Arrangements
Can be viewed on our Admissions page
Ofsted Report
Can be viewed on our Ofsted page
Curriculum
Can be viewed on our Curriculum section
Early Years Pupil Premium
Early Years Pupil Premium provides funding for children whose parents are in receipt of certain benefits, such as income support, or who were formerly in local authority care but who left care because they were adopted or were subject to a Special Guardianship or Child Arrangements order.
Peartree Way Nursery School provide a broad spectrum of interventions to support academic, social and personal well-being development. These areas include specific Early Years Interventions and Self-regulation and areas based on the research of the Sutton Trust and the Education Endowment Foundation which can be found at http://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/toolkit/
Our latest Early Years Pupil Premium Strategy 2024 – 2025
This statement details our school’s use of Early Years Pupil Premium (EYPP) funding to help improve the attainment of our disadvantaged pupils. It outlines our pupil premium strategy, how we intend to spend the funding in this academic year and the effect that last year’s spending of pupil premium had within our nursery school.
Autumn: 105 on roll (26% eligible for EYPP)
Spring: 106 on roll (29% eligible for EYPP)
Summer:
Academic year/years that our current pupil premium strategy plan covers: 2024/2025
Date this statement was published: October 2024
Date for final review: July 2025
Statement authorised by Deborah Willcox, Headteacher
Early Years Pupil Premium lead: Oana Vacaru Early Support Champion
Governor: Mary Pond
Funding overview
Early Years Pupil Premium funding allocation this academic year- Autumn Term
£142.80 Autumn per child
EYPP Income received – Autumn Term
2 Year Olds – £1876.80
3 Year Olds – £2142.00
Total = £4018.80
Early Years Pupil Premium funding allocation this academic year – Spring Term TBC
Early Years Pupil Premium funding allocation this academic year – Summer Term TBC
Recovery premium funding allocation this academic year: N/A
Pupil premium funding carried forward from previous years: £0
Total budget for this academic year
£411 per child per year x 28 = £11,508 (approximately as EYPP eligibility is subject to change)
If your school is an academy in a trust that pools this funding, state the amount available to your school this academic year: N/A
Part A: Pupil premium strategy plan
Statement of intent
At Peartree Way Nursery School our aim is that all children, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, have a great start, make strong progress and achieve high attainment across all areas of learning. The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support all children at risk of disadvantage to achieve that goal, including progress for those who are already high attaining.
When allocating the funding we will assess the context from which the child is working within – we take a holistic approach to providing support and look at potential challenges in both academic attainment and family support and enrichment. Research tells us that high attaining children are at risk of falling off of the trajectory so we allocate funding and carefully provide support irrespective of their starting points.
High quality provision is proven to be the key driver for raising attainment for all children including those at risk of disadvantage. At Peartree Way our commitment is to ensure that the nursery is a place where children thrive. The allocation of funding is carefully thought out to ensure that all children benefit from raised standards of provision.
Our strategy is to identify the key actions for individual children and families that will make the difference. School leaders are familiar with current research and use this research to inform decisions. Every child’s achievement and potential barriers are assessed, discussed and reviewed. Our fluid approach results in regular reviews and careful monitoring of impact to ensure that the allocation of funding is effective on making a difference.
Challenges
This details the key challenges to achievement that we have identified among our disadvantaged pupils.
1: Assessments, observations, and transition information indicate that many children, including those at risk of disadvantage, have starting points in communication and language which are lower than those expected of their chronological age.
2: We will support vulnerable children, for example those with a social worker or young carers, who may require support to ensure that the home and home learning environment promotes strong progress.
3: Attendance for identified children highlighted by Arbor data.
4: Our observations indicate that some children at risk of disadvantage need additional support with PSED to promote positive play cues and turn taking.
Intended outcomes
This explains the outcomes we are aiming for by the end of our current strategy plan, and how we will measure whether they have been achieved.
Intended outcome
Success criteria
Improved communication and language skills and vocabulary.
Children will make strong progress from their starting point evidenced through Wellcomm data
Children will make progress through Early Talk Boost sessions
Children will achieve the curriculum intent
Children will be well prepared for the next stage in their education through specific interventions
To provide bespoke support including extended sessions which will increase attendance and support progress through strong and effective relationships
Children’s attendance will improve; parents will understand the importance of regular attendance to secure strong progress.
Children will achieve our curriculum ambition to have a sense of belonging and connection to the community.
Children will be prepared for and make a smooth transition to their next setting.
Children will have appropriate clothing to be able to access the whole environment and our curriculum
Improved links with parents for greater involvement in their child’s learning and development
Children will make strong progress from their starting point.
Parents will be supported in their role as first educators
Improved behaviour and skills as children can recognise and respond to play cues, can take turns in a game etc.
Children will transition to their next setting with small friendship groups
Children show empathy and consideration towards others
Children have developed skills to regulate their behaviour during change and challenging times.
Activity in this academic year
This details how we intend to spend our Early Years Pupil Premium this academic year to address the challenges listed above.
Teaching and Targeted academic support:
Budgeted cost: £9000
Our Early Years Champion will lead on interventions for speech and language.
Wellcomm screening takes place across both Pre-School and Nursery at regular intervals across the school year
Initial Wellcomm assessments have shown that 86% of the EYPP cohort require additional support for speech, language and communication delay.
Resources will be purchased to replenish home learning packs
Daily interventions will provide opportunities for targeted speech and language support, building on SaLT advice and/or Wellcomm gaps, Attention Bucket for example.
Introduce Talk Boost strategies to support language and vocabulary acquisition across the whole nursery.
There is a strong evidence base that suggests oral language interventions, including dialogic activities such as Wellcomm are inexpensive to implement with high impact and positive outcomes for children.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/early-years-toolkit/communication-and-language-approaches
https://www.gl-assessment.co.uk/case-studies/sandwell-keeps-talking-with-help-from-wellcomm-early-years/
Funded additional sessions and extension to the school day is provided for children to support parents back to work or where the family need extra support.
Extended sessions, lunch clubs or after school clubs provide target children with further opportunities for conversational language and social interaction.
Book bags containing key texts and props are also shared to encourage engagement in reading at home. Library areas are established to support the sharing of quality texts at home. Structured library areas allow access to core texts to promote a love of reading, increased phonological awareness and sharing familiar rhymes. Core Books will be gifted to every EYPP child to support parental partnerships and promote a love of reading.
There is strong evidence that there is a link between low family income and poor academic achievement. By supporting parents back to work will improve outcomes for children.
https://www.lse.ac.uk/business/consulting/assets/documents/closing-gaps-early.pdf
Improving school attendance: support for schools and local authorities – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Extra session support will also be provided to ensure parents attend meetings and training to support them with engagement with external agencies where/when necessary
https://www.suttontrust.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/What-do-we-know-about-the-30-hour-entitlement-literature-review.pdf
Parental collaboration is a key driver in the Nursery.
Leadership time is being used to develop an environment which reflects our cohort and community. Time allocated to support with enhancement planning
All staff and children will have a Family Book to enhance their sense of belonging and value within our school family. Photos can be sent in by parents to be printed at school.
Parental engagement in early years education is consistently associated with children’s subsequent academic success.
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/early-years-toolkit/parental-engagement
https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/education-evidence/guidance-reports/supporting-parents?utm_source=/education-evidence/guidance-reports/supporting-parents&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=site_search&search_term=Parent
All staff will support positive behaviour using TAB strategies. Training to be accessed during this academic year.
Early Support Champion will build relationships with identified families to provide bespoke support.
Resources purchased to support children with additional needs to help them regulate their emotions and therefore their beahviour. These may be linked to Attention Bucket time.
Wider strategies (for example, related to attendance, behaviour, wellbeing)
Budgeted cost: £3000
To promote well-being – to give compassionate, timely support to the families of our disadvantaged children when they are in need. This will also be linked to contingency funding for issues which have not yet been identified and may occur during the year.
To expand cultural capital for those at risk of disadvantage through providing ‘hands on’ activities e.g. farm visit, hatching ducklings etc.
Photos and information relating to possible home enhancement activities will be shared via DOJO platform with possible additional resources purchased for home use.
To support families who may be at risk of additional financial pressures by purchasing of nappies and wipes to use in school, liaising with HCC and linked schools to support with food vouchers and emergency parcels. This links with contingency funding to be used in times of need.
Part B: Review of outcomes in the academic year
Pupil premium strategy outcomes will be evaluated in July 2025.
Our previous strategy and review Early Years Pupil Premium Strategy (2022-2023) can be viewed by clicking here
Special Educational Needs (SEN) & Disability Information
Can be viewed on our Inclusion page
Governors’ Information & Duties
Can be viewed on our Governors page
Vision and Values
Can be viewed on our Vision & Values page
Financial Statement
No member of staff employed at Peartree Way Nursery School earns over £100,000.
Financial Benchmarking
https://schools-financial-benchmarking.service.gov.uk/School?urn=117080
Requests for paper copies
If you require a paper copy of any information on our website, we will provide this free of charge. Please pop into the school office and this can be arranged for you.