Pupil Premium Information

Purpose

Pupil premium is funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England. Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.

 

Pupil eligibility and funding rates 2022 to 2023

This table shows how pupil premium funding is allocated to schools and local authorities. Allocations are provided on a financial year basis, based on the following pupil eligibility rates.

Pupil eligibility criteria

Amount of funding for each primary-aged pupil per year

Amount of funding for each secondary-aged pupil per year

Funding is paid to

Pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years (including eligible children of families with no recourse to public funds)

£1,385

£985

School

Pupils who have been adopted from care or have left care

£2,410

£2,410

School

Children who are looked after by the local authority

£2,410

£2,410

Local authority

Pupil Premium Strategy 2022-2023

 

Eligible schools

The following types of school are eligible to receive an allocation of pupil premium.

Local-authority-maintained schools

This includes:

  • mainstream infant, primary, middle, junior, secondary and all-through schools serving children aged 5 to 16

  • schools for children with special educational needs or disabilities

  • pupil referral units (PRUs), for children who do not go to a mainstream school

 

Academies, free schools and non-maintained special schools

This includes:

  • mainstream academies serving pupils aged 5 to 16

  • academies and non-maintained special schools for children with special educational needs or disabilities

  • alternative provision (AP) academies, for children who do not go to a mainstream school

Pupil premium funding is also provided to local authorities for eligible pupils in independent special schools, where the local authority pays full tuition fees.

 

Service pupil premium (SPP)

Service pupil premium is additional funding for schools, but it is not based on disadvantage. It has been combined into pupil premium payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending.

Pupils in state-funded schools in England attract service pupil premium funding, at the rate of £320 per eligible pupil in 2022 to 2023, if they meet one or more of the following criteria:

  • one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces (including pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full-time reserve service, and also pupils whose parent is serving in the armed forces of another nation and is formally stationed in England) – and they are recorded in the October school census as being a ‘service child’

  • they have previously been registered as a ‘service child’ in any school census in the last 6 years

  • one of their parents died while serving in the armed forces, and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme

This funding is primarily to help with pastoral support. It can also be used to help improve the academic progress of eligible pupils if the school deems this to be a priority.

 

Use of the pupil premium

Funding paid to schools

School leaders can decide on which activity to spend their pupil premium (and recovery premium) within the framework set out by the ‘menu of approaches’. This can be found on page 7 of ‘Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders’.

The menu is designed to help schools use their funding effectively to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.

The format of the menu reflects evidence suggesting that pupil premium spending is most effective when used across 3 areas:

  1. high-quality teaching, such as staff professional development

  2. targeted academic support, such as tutoring

  3. wider strategies to address non-academic barriers to success in schools, such as attendance, behaviour, and social and emotional support

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) recommends that schools particularly focus their pupil premium on supporting high-quality teaching.

Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools are not required to spend all of their allocated grant on eligible pupils (see ‘Non-eligible pupils’).

 

Non-eligible pupils

Schools do not have to spend pupil premium so it solely benefits eligible pupils. They can use it wherever they identify the greatest need. For example, they might spend it on pupils who do not get free school meals but:

  • have or have had a social worker

  • act as a carer

Using pupil premium funding to improve teaching quality is the most effective way to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils. By doing so, schools will inevitably benefit non-eligible pupils as well.

 

Academically able pupils

Pupil premium funding is not allocated based on academic ability. Schools and local authorities will receive funding based on all of the children who are eligible.

Evidence shows that academically able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are most at risk of underperforming. These pupils should receive just as much focus as less academically able pupils.

Accountability

Schools must show how they’re using their pupil premium funding:

  • by publishing a statement on their website about how they use it and the impact it has on the attainment of disadvantaged pupils

  • through inspections by Ofsted

  • through published performance tables