What is the Pupil Premium?
The pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England.
It’s designed to help disadvantaged pupils of all abilities perform better, and close the gap between them and their peers.
The pupil premium was introduced in April 2011 and is allocated to schools to work with pupils who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’).
Schools also receive funding for children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months, and children of service personnel.
In the 2018-2019 Financial Year
- £1,320 per pupil of primary-school age
- £935 per pupil of secondary-school age
- £2,300 per pupil for children who have ceased to be looked after by a local authority in England and Wales because of adoption, a special guardianship order, a child arrangements order or a residence order.
- £300 per pupil for those pupils in year groups reception to year 11 recorded as Ever 6 service child or in receipt of a child pension from the Ministry of Defence
The January school census is used to calculate funding for the following financial year, The pupil premium for 2018 to 2019 will include pupils recorded in the January 2018 school census who are known to have been eligible for FSM since May 2012, as well as those first known to be eligible at January 2018.
Terms on which PPG is allocated to schools
The grant may be spent in the following ways:
- for the purposes of the school; that is, for the educational benefit of pupils registered at that school
- for the benefit of pupils registered at other maintained schools or academies
- on community facilities; for example, services whose provision furthers any charitable purpose for the benefit of pupils at the school or their families, or people who live or work in the locality in which the school is situated
The government believes that head teachers and school leaders should decide how to use the pupil premium. They are held accountable for the decisions they make through:
Online reportingSchools maintained by the local authority must publish their strategy for using the pupil premium on their website.