What is Pupil Premium?

The pupil premium is additional funding given to schools

to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers. The Government believes that the pupil premium is the best way to address current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their non FSM peers, by ensuring the funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. The government uses eligibility for free school meals as the main measure of deprivation at pupil level. Funding is also available for those children with parents serving in the Armed Forces.  Children who are under Local Authority Care or who have been previously Looked After, are also eligible for funding.  Conditions of Pupil Premium funding grant can be found at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/pupil-premium-allocations-and-conditions-of-grant-2023-to-2024.

Common barriers for disadvantaged pupils can be; weak language and communication skills, lack of confidence, more frequent behavioural difficulties, attendance and punctuality issues and less support at home.  There may also be complex family situations that can have an impact on children’s learning and progress.  The challenges are complex and varied, therefore, it is important that individual needs are identified and catered for as we are very clear that negative, outside influences are not an excuse for underachievement. 

At Our Lady and St. Gerard’s RC Primary School, there is a school-wide commitment to raising achievement for ALL pupils and a key objective for the use of the pupil premium grant is to close the gap between pupil groups. 

In February 2021, the government announced a one-off recovery premium as part of its package of funding to support education recovery.  The recovery premium provides additional funding for state-funded schools. Building on the pupil premium, this funding will help schools to deliver evidence-based approaches for supporting disadvantaged pupils.  The disproportionately high impact of COVID-19 on the education of disadvantaged pupils makes this more important than ever.

To ensure that we have a longer term approach to raising attainment of disadvantaged pupils, we have moved to the recommended 3 year strategy.  The strategy will be reviewed annually, updated and published here.

Useful links and documents