Pupil Premium

Purpose

Publicly-funded schools in England get extra funding from the government to help them improve the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils.Evidence shows that children from disadvantaged backgrounds:

• generally face extra challenges in reaching their potential at school
• often do not perform as well as their peers

The pupil premium grant is designed to allow schools to help disadvantaged pupils by improving their progress and the exam results they achieve.

Eligibility and Funding

Schools get pupil premium funding based on the number of pupils they have in January each year from the following groups:

• every primary age pupil who claims free school meals, or who has claimed free school meals in the last 6 years.
• for every pupil who has left local authority care through adoption, a special guardianship order or child arrangements order.
• for each child who is considered to be ‘looked after’
• for every pupil with a parent who is either serving in HM Forces or has retired on a pension from the Ministry of Defence

Use of Funding and Accountability

It is up to school leaders to determine how to best use their allocated Pupil Premium Funding based upon the needs of their pupils and the support required. Schools must show how they’re using their pupil premium effectively:

• by publishing an online report on their website
• through inspections by Ofsted
• through published performance tables