The Government provides academies and schools with additional funding to help reduce inequalities and gaps in attainment between those students who are on free school meals (FSM) and their peers. This funding is called the Pupil Premium.
The Pupil Premium is allocated to each academy or school by the number of pupils who are currently known to be eligible for free school meals. The Pupil Premium funding that is received by Windmill L.E.A.D. Academy is used in a variety of ways in order to improve pupil attainment and to help overcome any barriers to learning. This extra money is specifically targeted for the most disadvantaged children in our academy. Please note, we value all of our pupils equally; whatever their background, and aim to provide a welcoming, inclusive atmosphere that does not discriminate on the grounds of gender, ethnicity, culture, religion or ability. We work hard to improve outcomes for our pupils and have high expectations for every single child.
Here at Windmill L.E.A.D. Academy we use the funding in a variety of ways. Many of our strategies are based on research by the Education Endowment Fund (EEF) and are proven to accelerate outcomes for pupils. For full details of our strategy please use the link below to our full Pupil Premium Strategy document, listed below.
All schools receive an annual ‘Sports Premium’ to schools to ensure that all pupils are accessing a full and effective physical education. At Windmill L.E.A.D. Academy, we work to ensure this funding is spent effectively across the Academy to maximise the benefit of all our pupils. This includes funding specialist sports coaches, attendance at competitive sports events, extra-curricular activities and to encourage the development of healthy, active lifestyles for all pupils. We ensure that sport and P.E. provision here at Windmill L.E.A.D. Academy supports the needs of all our pupils.
At Windmill, we recognise the importance of children learning to swim and to be able to perform safe self-rescue at an early age.
From our evaluation of our swimming provision, we decided to provide more swimming lessons in the autumn and spring terms for Year 4 and a summer refresher course for Year 6.
This year, we will continue with two terms of intensive swimming for Year 4 and a refresher for Year 6. We have also introduced a summer term of swimming for Year 2 to start to build their confidence in the water and to be able to pull themselves out of the water safely. We aim to continue to provide intensive swimming coaching for Year 4, so that children will have greater success at learning to swim compared to having short sessions over a couple of years.
Year 6 Cohort swimming statistics 2022/2023
Percentage of children who can swim a distance using one stroke.
| 25 metres + | 10 metres | 5 metres | Something less than |
| 66% | 79% | 88% | 93% |
Percentage of children who can swim a distance using multiple strokes.
| 25 metres + | 10 metres |
| 66% | 71% |
95% of Year 6 children can perform self rescue techniques.
