1. Virtual School for Looked After Children
The Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) & The Sutton Trust Analysis of best practice usage
Virtual School for Looked After Children

2. Background to the PPG Announced Dec. 2010
Nationally, £1.25 billion
For ‘pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as pupils from less deprived families’ (DfE Ministerial Statement)
Aimed at underachieving groups i.e. FSM, LAC least 6 mths.), Services’ children
Aims to:
Increase social mobility
Enable pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds to go to top Unis
Reduce attainment gaps (Sutton Trust)

3. Background to the PPG Currently £600 p.a.
Above equates to 2 → 3 teacher days per pupil per year
Statutory school age
Mainstream & special schools
Funding via LA
Academies also funded via LA

4. Background to the PPG for Looked After Children
Local discretion on application, therefore:
LAC PPG distributed termly (to account for mobility)
Element of PPG (Short Stay Schools/independent providers) to be used centrally
Usage monitored via the Personal Education Plan (PEP) & Quality Practice Check
‘Our’ children out of county – passported via receiving LA & vice versa

5. Impact of PPG – how additional resources can affect outcomes
Clear linkage between expenditure & pupil learning hard to ascertain
Sutton Trust has developed a ‘Toolkit of Strategies to Improve Learning’
This aims to identify areas of expenditure ‘which offer better bet than others’
Combines evidence from other research analyses

6. Assessing impact against cost

7. Strategies that have high impact but low cost
Effective feedback
Meta cognition strategies
Peer learning
Assessment for Learning
Homework
Parent or carer involvement
ICT

8. Strategies that have high impact but also high cost
Early intervention
One-to-one tuition

9. Relating these findings to practice & influence
Can you use PPG on the more ‘cost effective’ additional resources?
Ways of sharing this learning?
Can you offer a forum for sharing good practice usage of the PPG?
What are your further training needs?

10. Contact information
Christopher Tyler
Headteacher, Virtual School for Looked After Children, Staffordshire