The Pupil Premium has one central aim: to raise the educational outcomes of disadvantaged pupils. In doing this, it also supports our mission to close the wide and persistent gap in achievement that separates children who grow up in poverty from their more affluent peers. These gaps affect more than education and employment outcomes. Higher achievement is also tied to better health and well-being throughout our lives beyond education.

Pupil premium funding is allocated to eligible schools based on the number of:

• pupils who are recorded as eligible for free school meals, or have been recorded as eligible in the past 6 years (referred to as Ever 6 FSM)
• children previously looked after by a local authority or other state care, including children adopted from state care or equivalent from outside England and Wales

Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools do not have to spend pupil premium so that it solely benefits pupils who meet the funding criteria. It can be used:

• to support other pupils with identified needs, such as those who have or have had a social worker, or who act as a carer
• for whole class interventions which will also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils

Allocation to schools

For mainstream schools, special schools and pupil referral units, Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) will allocate PPG to local authorities the following amounts:

£1,075 per pupil for each Ever 6 FSM FTE and each eligible NRPF FTE pupil, in year groups 7 to 11, except where the pupil is allocated the LAC or post-LAC premium

£2,630 per pupil for each Looked-after child (LAC) or Previously Looked-after child (PLAC) in year groups reception to year 11

£350 for each pupil aged 4 and over in year groups reception to year 11 who is either Ever 6 service child FTE or in receipt of pensions under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and the War Pensions Scheme (WPS).

How Service pupil premium differs from the pupil premium

The SPP is there for schools to provide mainly pastoral support for service children, whereas the pupil premium (PP) was introduced to raise attainment and accelerate progress within disadvantaged groups.