Pupil Premium

Purpose

Pupil premium is funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England. Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.

Pupil eligibility and funding rates 2022 to 2023

This table shows how pupil premium funding is allocated to schools and local authorities. Allocations are provided on a financial year basis, based on the following pupil eligibility rates.

School leaders can decide on which activity to spend their pupil premium (and recovery premium) within the framework set out by the ‘menu of approaches’. This can be found on page 7 of ‘Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders’.

The menu is designed to help schools use their funding effectively to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils.

The format of the menu reflects evidence suggesting that pupil premium spending is most effective when used across 3 areas:

1. high-quality teaching, such as staff professional development
2. targeted academic support, such as tutoring
3. wider strategies to address non-academic barriers to success in schools, such as attendance, behaviour, and social and emotional support

The Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) recommends that schools particularly focus their pupil premium on supporting high-quality teaching.

Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools are not required to spend all of their allocated grant on eligible pupils (see ‘Non-eligible pupils’).