The pupil premium is a grant given by the government to schools in order to decrease the attainment gap for the most disadvantaged children, whether by income or by family upheaval.

The pupil premium is intended to directly benefit the children who are eligible, helping to diminish the difference between them and their peers. Students receive Pupil Premium if they are in receipt of Free School Meals or have qualified for free school meals at any point in the past six years, (classed as Ever 6.)

Who is eligible for free school meals?

Free school meals are available to pupils in receipt of, or whose parents are in receipt of, one or more of the following benefits:

• Universal Credit (provided you have an annual net earned income of no more than £7,400, as assessed by earnings from up to three of your most recent assessment periods)
• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
• Support under Part VI of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999
• The guarantee element of Pension Credit
• Child Tax Credit (provided you’re not also entitled to Working Tax Credit and have an annual gross income of no more than £16,190)
• Working Tax Credit run-on – paid for four weeks after you stop qualifying for Working Tax Credit

The pupil premium grant is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England. It is a school-level grant that gives schools extra resources to help them meet challenges, including those arising from deprivation.

It’s allocated for schools to:

• improve the academic outcomes of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities
• close the attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and their peers across the country

DfE Guidance:

Pupil premium: effective use and accountability contains separate guidance for school leaders and governing boards. This includes the Education Endowment Foundation’s (EEF) pupil premium guide.

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.

The government has announced that pupil premium and service premium rates will increase in line with inflation for the financial year 2020 to 2021 in April 2020.

We have stated the new rates for each type of pupil premium on this page.

Free school meals

Schools get £1,345 for every primary age pupil, or £955 for every secondary age pupil, who claims free school meals, or who has claimed free school meals in the last 6 years.

Looked-after and previously looked-after children

 Schools get £2,345 for every pupil who has left local authority care through adoption, a special guardianship order or child arrangements order.

Local authorities get the same amount for each child they are looking after; they must work with the school to decide how the money is used to support the child’s Personal Education Plan.

Service premium

The service premium is not part of the pupil premium as the rules to attract the service premium are different.

Schools get £310 for every pupil with a parent who:

• is serving in HM Forces
• has retired on a pension from the Ministry of Defence

This funding is to help with pastoral support.

The pupil premium is not based on ability.

Research shows that the most academically able pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds are most at risk of under-performing. Schools should focus on these pupils just as much as pupils with low results.

The Year 7 catch-up premium is a type of funding additional to the main school funding. The premium was previously provided to schools with an additional £500 for each Year 7 pupil who did not achieve at least Level 4 in reading and/or maths at the end of Key Stage 2. The Government have continued to allocate schools this funding based on a formula using previous years’ attainment, as we no longer have levels in Key Stage 2.

Schools are free to spend the catch-up premium as they see fit within specific parameters At Quarrydale we may use funding to support some of the following activities:

• Quality first teaching
• Individual tuition in addition to classroom teaching
• Intensive small-group tuition
• Purchasing external services and materials to add to those provided by the school, for example tutor services or proven computer-based learning or online support
• Summer or holiday schools to deliver intensive catch-up over a short period
• Other subject specific interventions