Purpose of pupil premium

Opportunity for children and young people is too often defined by their background. This government is determined to do more to improve the life chances of our most disadvantaged children and break the link between background and future success. The pupil premium grant plays a critical role in supporting the work of government’s opportunity mission to drive high and rising standards and ensure every child, no matter their background, can achieve and thrive.

Pupil premium is additional funding for state-funded schools in England to help raise the educational outcomes of disadvantaged 5- to 16-year-olds. We know that disadvantaged pupils, on average, achieve worse educational outcomes due to the additional challenges they face.

Pupil premium supports the aim of narrowing the gap between the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and their peers. This will help to break the link between children’s outcomes and those of their parents. Prioritising early education is critical to this. Roughly 40% of the overall gap between disadvantaged 16-year-olds and their peers has already emerged by age 5, and these differences continue to widen as children move through the education system.

Schools should use their pupil premium to address the specific challenges their disadvantaged pupils face, through:

• high-quality teaching
• targeted academic support
• wider strategies to help pupils to attend, belong and succeed