Guidance

Pupil premium

Information on pupil premium funding, how school leaders can use it effectively and pupil premium strategy statements.

Applies to England

Documents

Details

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.

The pupil premium overview explains how the government:

  • allocates pupil premium funding
  • expects schools and local authorities to use pupil premium
  • holds schools to account for their spending decisions

The guidance for school leaders explains:

  • how school leaders can use their funding effectively
  • the reporting requirements
  • how to check the school’s allocation and find out more about payments

All schools that receive pupil premium must publish a strategy statement by 31 December each academic year, using the template provided.

The example statements are provided as a guide to help schools complete their own statements.

Published 18 October 2019
Last updated 22 February 2024 + show all updates
  1. 'Pupil premium: overview' has been updated with information for the 2023 to 2024 academic year, including outlining the funding criteria and adding a link to the allocations and conditions of grant for the 2024 to 2025 financial year. 'Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders' has been updated to add information to the ‘purpose of pupil premium’ section and improve overall readability.

  2. Updated 'Pupil premium: overview' to include pupil premium funding rates and payment schedule for the financial year 2024 to 2025.

  3. Updated the 'Pupil premium strategy statement template', 'Example pupil premium strategy statement (primary)', 'Example pupil premium strategy statement (secondary)' and 'Example pupil premium strategy statement (special)' to update the content in the Outcomes sections and reflect the information schools can publish about pupil outcomes in the 2022 to 2023 academic year.

  4. Updated 'Pupil premium: overview' to remove information on the 2022-23 rates and payment schedule.

  5. 'Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders' has been updated.

  6. 'Pupil premium: overview' has been updated with information for the academic year 2023 to 2024.

  7. We have updated 'Pupil premium: overview' to include pupil premium rates for the financial year 2023 to 2024.

  8. 'Use of the pupil premium' section has been updated to reference the menu of approaches and the 'Service pupil premium' section has been updated to correct inaccuracies in 'Pupil premium: overview'. 'Pupil premium strategy statement template' and 3 example statements have been updated.

  9. Updated 'Pupil premium: overview' to reflect that free school meal eligibility now includes children in all households with no recourse to public funds.

  10. Added statement template and 3 example documents (primary, secondary, special) and made minor update to 'Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders' to reflect this.

  11. Updated 'Using pupil premium: guidance for school leaders' - changed subsection heading from 'Guide to applying the menu' to 'How to apply the menu' for clarification.

  12. Removed information about the 2021 to 2022 academic year from the overview and added updated guidance for school leaders about using pupil premium.

  13. Added the Pupil eligibility and funding rates for 2022 to 2023 to show how much much pupil premium funding schools and local authorities receive for each eligible child.

  14. Amended to make the pupil eligibility and funding rates and use of the pupil premium sections clearer.

  15. Moved information about 2021 to 2022 allocations to the effective use and accountability webpage.

  16. Updated with a link to ‘Pupil premium: allocations and conditions of grant 2021 to 2022’ and added information on the requirements of schools.

  17. Added information about allocation changes from 2021 to 2022.

  18. Updated pupil premium and service premium rates for the financial year 2021 to 2022.

  19. Updated to show the increased pupil premium and service premium rates for the financial year 2020 to 2021.

  20. First published.