The Pupil Premium is a Government initiative designed to give additional money to support schools in raising the attainment of children who receive free school meals (FSM), children in local authority care and service children. These groups of children have been identified nationally as achieving at a lower level than children from less disadvantaged backgrounds.

 

Pupil Premium is allocated to schools based on the number of children who are currently known to be eligible for free school meals (or have been at any point in the last 6 years), children who have been looked after in local authority care continuously for more than 6 months and service children.

 

The purpose of the Pupil Premium is to help schools to provide targeted support for vulnerable children - not necessarily just children who qualify for FSM.

 

“It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools per FSM pupil, is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility.” Source - DfE website