Monitoring pupil premium: role of the link governor

Be clear on the role and responsibilities of a pupil premium link governor. Use our list of questions when monitoring provision and our template when reporting to your board.

Last reviewed on 1 November 2022
School types: All · School phases: All
Ref: 4247
Contents
  1. Role and responsibilities
  2. Ask questions to help you monitor provision
  3. Report back to the board

Role and responsibilities

You need to hold senior leaders to account for:

  • How they spend the pupil premium (from September 2022, they should be using the Department for Education's menu of approaches)
  • The impact of spending on targeted groups
  • The attainment and progress of eligible pupils compared with others

Make sure you're familiar with the pupil premium

You need to know:

  • What it is
  • How it's calculated and allocated
  • Which groups of pupils attract the premium
  • How it can be spent

If you're unsure, use our pupil premium course to get up to scratch. It covers the basics like what it is and who's eligible to receive funding, but also dives deeper into how to monitor the premium.

Once you complete the final assessment, you'll receive a certificate to say you've competed the training which will appear on your GovernorHub training record. 

You could also take a look at our other articles:

Know your context

Whether you're in a school or trust, you should:

  • Read and understand the pupil premium strategy statement
  • Get familiar with your pupil premium policy, if your school/trust has one
  • Know basic pupil premium facts for your school/trust, such as how many pupils attract the premium and how this figure compares nationally
  • Meet occasionally with the staff responsible for performance data to discuss issues around under-performing groups, including those eligible for the pupil premium
  • Challenge the allocation of the pupil premium grant if there's no clear audit trail showing appropriate use of the resources

Monitor data

Make sure you:

  • Understand the pupil performance data that shows the progress of different groups over time
  • Monitor the spending of the pupil premium, making sure spending decisions are based on the menu of approaches and supported by research evidence
  • Monitor the impact of pupil premium spending on target groups
  • Monitor the attainment of different groups of pupils over time to provide evidence of how pupils eligible for the pupil premium are progressing compared with others

Be the board's specialist

You should:

  • Take an active part in any governing board or committee discussions where the allocation and monitoring of the pupil premium is discussed 
  • Report back to the governing board on the school's use of the pupil premium 

Ask questions to help you monitor provision

Ask senior leaders questions during:

  • Full governing board meetings
  • Committee meetings
  • School visits

Use the questions in our article to do this. They also include what you'll want to hear in answers.

Report back to the board

It's important that you report back to the board after a visit or discussion. This is because the board retains overall responsibility for making sure that funding is spent on improving attainment for eligible pupils.

Use our template to help you do this.

Sources

We worked with 2 governance experts to write this article:

  • Derek Balaam, a school and children's centre governance consultant. He has extensive experience of governance issues having been a school teacher, local authority governor support manager, and chair of the London Co-ordinators of Governor Services
  • Vicky Redding, a governance trainer and consultant. She provides training, advice and support on effective school governance

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