The Pupil Deprivation Grant (PDG) is the Welsh Government’s principal means of supporting schools to reduce the impact of a disadvantaged background on the educational attainment of pupils who receive Free School Meals (FSM) or who are Looked After Children (LAC). The PDG is intended to overcome the additional barriers that some learners face which prevent them from attaining as well as their peers, whatever their ability.

 

The Education Improvement Grant (EIG) a grant to improve educational outcomes for all learners and reduce the impact of deprivation on learner outcomes by:

• improving the quality of teaching and learning;
• addressing learners’ barriers to learning and improving inclusion;
• improving the leadership of educational settings; and
• improving the provision for learners and the engagement of learners.

 

The Professional Learning Grant (PLG) is:

• For the general release of teachers and TAs to engage in professional learning activities
• creating roles/posts, to co-ordinate PL activities across a school or group of schools
• the release costs for practitioners to engage in research, funding release time to investigate the implications of the new curriculum for their own teaching and assessment practice
• the release costs to enable practitioners to collaborate both within school and across clusters and networks of schools
• supporting the development of the roles such as school (or cluster level) Professional Learning Coach
• schools should pool their resources appropriately across clusters/structured networks to maximise the impact and level of funding • schools should publish their Professional Learning plans (either on a school or cluster level) outlining how they plan to support the professional learning needs of all practitioners within their schools and report against those plans (again publishing a short report on their web-site)
• Challenge Advisors within the regions should work alongside schools to consider the plans and in essence sign off to confirm that the plan meets the needs

 

PDG Allocation 2023-2024 including Early Years 

£72,450

 

PDG Targets

This year the targets for the PDG Plan are focused on:

• Promote effective family and community engagement
• Narrow the impact between the attainment of e-FSM / and non e-FSM pupils through collaborative learning and effective engagement.
• Narrow the impact between the attendance and exclusions of e-FSM and non e-FSM through improved social communication skills.

 

Strategies

The strategies being implemented to meet these targets are:

• Additional Learning Support staff to narrow the gap  (literacy & numeracy)
• Additional Learning Support staff to improve social communication and family engagement 
• Enrichment and Extra-Curricular Activities
• Developing social and emotional skills of disadvantaged learners.
• Continuing professional development 

 

EIG Allocation 2023-2024

£40,837

• CPD and observations to meet PIAP targets around challenge
• Wellbeing professional learning as part of our staff wellbeing commitment   

 

PLG Allocation 2023-2024

£2754

• Release of staff to share good practice in school and within cluster
• Welsh and DCF Cluster in line with PIAP recommendations