We will consider the challenges faced by vulnerable pupils and their families, such as declining mental health, lower income particularly post-pandemic, cost of living crisis and insufficient access to digital technologies impacting on their rates of progress. The activity we have outlined in this statement is also intended to support their needs, regardless of whether they are disadvantaged or not.

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High-quality teaching is at the heart of our approach, with a focus on areas in which disadvantaged pupils require the most support. This is proven to have the greatest impact on closing the disadvantage attainment gap and at the same time will benefit the non-disadvantaged pupils in our school.

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Our strategy is also integral to wider school plans for education recovery, therefore our approach will be responsive to common challenges and individual needs, rooted in robust diagnostic assessment, not assumptions about the impact of disadvantage. The approaches we have adopted complement each other to help pupils excel.

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To ensure they are effective we will:

• ensure disadvantaged pupils are challenged in the work that they’re set, including high achievers
• act early to intervene at the point need is identified
• adopt a whole school approach in which all staff take responsibility for disadvantaged pupils’ outcomes and raise expectations of what they can achieve