Pupil Deprivation Grant

In 2012 the Welsh Government introduced the Pupil Deprivation Grant to enable schools to reduce the impact of poverty on pupil attainment. For the 2019-2020 academic year the PDG is funded at £1,150 per pupil for all pupils in receipt of free school meals.

The pupil roll at Abersychan School is currently 845 pupils, of which 30% are in receipt of free school meals. This figure is now stabilising after rising steadily over the last four years. Consequently, for 2019-2020 Abersychan School has received a PDG of £236,900 which is a significant sum of money.

In order to support pupils facing the challenges of poverty and deprivation the school has undertaken the following activities:

• Intervention programmes for pupils to raise their levels of competence in literacy and numeracy
• Pre-examination focused sessions
• Increasing the number of staff in our Inclusion team in order to support more pupils in the challenges they face, reduce the number of exclusions and engage more families
• Learning coach support for pupils
• Small group intervention support for GCSE English and mathematics
• Alternative curriculum provision for those pupils who find the curriculum offer challenging
• Staff development capacity building to improve the quality of teaching and learning
• Additional rewards for pupils in receipt of free school meals
• Funding to subsidise school visits, music lessons, ingredients and material for pupils in receipt of free school meals 

The school’s PDG, EIG and grants are regularly scrutinised by the Governing Body, supported by advice from the EAS and monitored by the Local Authority.