Pupil Premium & Catch Up

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The Pupil Premium is additional funding given to schools so that they can support disadvantaged pupils and close the attainment gap between them and their peers.  Pupil Premium is currently worth £935 for each child of secondary school age who met the criteria.

 

​Purpose

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The government believes that additional funding for the pupil premium is the best way to address the current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their peers.

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The pupil premium was introduced in April 2011 and is allocated to schools to work with pupils who have been registered for free school meals at any point in the last six years (known as ‘Ever 6 FSM’).

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Schools also receive funding for children who have been looked after continuously for more than six months and children of service personnel.

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The pupil premium has also funded Summer School Programmes for disadvantaged pupils to support their transition to secondary schools.

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Accountability

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The government believes that headteachers and school leaders should decide how to use the pupil premium. They are held accountable for the decisions they make through:

• the performance tables which show the performance of disadvantaged pupils compared with their peers

• the Ofsted inspection framework, under which inspectors focus on the attainment of pupil groups, and in particular those who attract the pupil premium

• the reports or online statements for parents that schools have to publish

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Reported information should include:

• the school’s pupil premium allocation in respect of the current academic year

• details of how it is intended that the allocation will be spent

• details of how the previous academic year’s allocation was spent

• the impact of this expenditure on the educational attainment of those pupils at the school