Pupil Premium

Pupil premium is additional funding received by schools for each child from disadvantaged families or background. It’s allocated to schools based on the number of children who come from low-income families – this is defined as those who are currently known to be eligible for free school meals (FSM). The initiative is based on findings that show that, as a group, children who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in time have consistently lower educational attainment than those who have never been eligible.

It’s important to know that a pupil does not need to have a school dinner, but families should check to see if they are entitled.

It also includes children who have been eligible for free school meals at any point in the last six years; children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months; and children where a parent serves in the armed forces. At around £1,300 per eligible child, this money is for schools to decide how to use in order to improve educational attainment of children from less privileged backgrounds.

How we spend the pupil premium

Our Pupil Premium Plans show how we’re using the pupil premium funding:

What impact has it had?

Our Pupil Premium evaluations show how we’re using the funding and assess the impact it has had:

Catch-up premium

The government has announced a national programme of funding to support children and young people to catch up. This includes a one-off universal £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time.

Schools’ allocations are calculated on a per pupil basis: £80 for each pupil from Reception (Foundation 2) to Year 6. As the catch-up premium has been designed to mitigate the effects of the disruption caused by Covid-19, the grant is available for the 2020 to 2021 academic year only; there are currently no plans to include in schools’ funding allocations in future years. The funding is provided in three instalments and draws upon the guidance outlined in the Educational Endowment Fund’s Covid-19 Support for Schools guide, as advocated by the DfE.

Here is our catch up premium stratergy.