The pupil premium is additional funding provided to schools to support disadvantaged pupils to ensure they benefit from the same opportunities as all other children, reach their full potential and to close the gap in attainment that exists between disadvantaged pupils and their peers.
There are three categories of children that qualify for pupil premium funding:
children who are currently eligible for free schoo meals (FSM) or have been in receipt of FSM at any point in the last 6 years
Children who have been looked after by Social Care continuously for more than 6 months
Children of those employed in the armed forces
Your child will be eligible for Free School Meals/Pupil Premium if you receive any of these benefits:
- 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 Guaranteed element of State Pension Credit
- Child Tax Credit with an annual gross income into the household that is no more than £16,190 provided you are not entitled to Working Tax Credit. If you are entitled to any part of Working Tax Credit, there is no eligibility with the exception of working tax run-on as shown below.
- Working Tax Credit run-on - paid for 4 weeks after you stop qualifyin for Working Tax Credit.
- Universal Credit
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. Its use in school aligns with the Education Endowment Foundation's 3-tiered approach, which helps schools allocate spending across the following areas:
- developing high-quality teaching, for example through professional development and recruitment and retention
- providing targeted academic support, such as one-to-one or small group tuition
- tackling non-academic barriers to academic success, such as difficulties with attendance, behaviour and social and emotional wellbeing
To qualify for Pupil Premium funding a child needs to be in receipt of free-school meals.