QuickRead: Pupil premium

Purpose of the pupil premium

The pupil premium is additional funding given to maintained schools and academies to narrow attainment gaps between disadvantaged pupils and other pupils.

It's also used to support pupils with parents in the regular armed forces - this part of it is known as the service premium.

The grant may be spent:

• For the educational benefit of pupils registered at your school or at other maintained schools or academies
• On community facilities, such as charitable services which benefit pupils at your school or their families or people who live or work in your school's locality

Eligibility and amount per pupil in 2020-21

• Primary aged pupils recorded as ‘ever 6 free school meals (FSM)’: £1,345
• Secondary aged pupils recorded as ‘ever 6 FSM’: £955
• Looked after children (LAC) and post-LAC: £2,345
• Pupils recorded as ‘ever 6 service children’ or in receipt of a pension from the Ministry of Defence: £310

‘Ever 6’ FSM pupils are those that have been recorded as eligible for FSM at any point since May 2014. FSM eligible pupils are those whose parents receive certain benefits.

LAC refers to children who have been looked after by a local authority for at least one day. Post-LAC refers to those who have left local authority care via adoption or special order.

‘Ever 6’ service children are those that have been recorded as eligible since January 2015.

Governors' role

Your board is responsible for making sure the pupil premium funding is spent on improving the attainment of eligible pupils. Your board and/or link governor should monitor:

• The spending of the pupil premium - make sure money is spent in identifiable ways to support targeted groups of pupils
• The impact of spending on targeted groups - all schools are required to publish pupil premium impact reports
• The attainment and progress of eligible pupils compared with others

Schools don't have to publish reports about the service pupil premium like they do for the pupil premium, but you should still monitor whether this funding is being used effectively to support the emotional and social wellbeing of the pupils who receive it.

Ofsted inspectors will look at how well you hold school leaders to account for using the pupil premium effectively.