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.