The Pupil Premium

In April 2011, the Department for Education (DfE) introduced the Pupil Premium and the Service Premium. This gave schools extra funding to help them to improve the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and to assist with the pastoral needs of children with parents in the armed forces.

The pupil premium is designed to address inequality by giving every school and teacher the resources they need to help their most disadvantaged pupils, allowing them the freedom to respond appropriately to individual circumstances.

The pupil premium gives schools extra funding to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils from reception to year 11 and to close the gap between them and their peers.

For the 2024-25 financial year schools will receive: 

• £1,480 per pupil of primary-school age who is eligible for free school meals or who has been eligible at any point in the past 6 years. 
• £2,570 per pupil for looked after pupils or those who have previously been looked after. 

School accountability for the Pupil Premium

The pupil premium is paid to schools as they are best placed to assess what additional provision their pupils need.

Ofsted inspections report on how schools’ use of the funding affects the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils.

The DfE also hold schools to account through performance tables, which include data on:

• the attainment of the pupils who attract the funding
• the progress made by these pupils
• the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers

Schools maintained by the local authority must publish their strategy for using the pupil premium on their website.