PUPIL PREMIUM OVERVIEW

What is the Pupil Premium?

The Pupil Premium was introduced by the Government in April 2011. It was designed to give additional money to support schools in raising the attainment of children who receive free school meals, children whose parents serve in the Armed Forces and those children in local authority care.

These groups of children have been identified nationally as achieving at a lower level than children from other backgrounds. For example, national figures show that 11 year olds who are eligible for Free School Meals are around twice as likely not to achieve their Age Related Expectation (ARE) in math and English as other 11 year olds.

The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gaps between them and their peers.

Where does the money come from?

Pupil Premium is an additional fund to the school main budget and is allocated to schools from the national government based on the number of children who are currently known to be or have been eligible for Free School Meals within the last 6 years (ever 6), whose parents serve in the Armed Forces and children who have been looked after in local authority care continuously for more than six months.

How the money is best spent?

The purpose of the Pupil Premium is to help schools to provide targeted support for vulnerable children- not necessarily just children who qualify for FSM. “It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility.” (Source – DfE website) The funding is therefore given to schools to spend as they think best, although there is a requirement to publish online how this money is spent.

For more details on the Pupil Premium please visit: http://www.education.gov.uk/schools/pupilsupport/premium