Pupil Premium & Recovery Premium
Please read the information below which gives details of our Pupil Premium & Recovery Premium Grants and how we allocate the funding.
What is Pupil Premium?
Publicly-funded schools in England get extra funding from the government to help them improve the attainment of their disadvantaged pupils.
Evidence shows that children from disadvantaged backgrounds:
- generally face extra challenges in reaching their potential at school
- often do not perform as well as their peers
The pupil premium grant is designed to allow schools to help disadvantaged pupils by improving their progress and the exam results they achieve.
Eligibility and Funding
Schools get pupil premium funding based on the number of pupils they have in January each year from the following groups:
Free school meals
Schools get £1,385 for every primary age pupil who claims free school meals, or who has claimed free school meals in the last 6 years.
Looked-after and previously looked-after children
Schools get £2,410 for every pupil who has left local authority care through adoption, a special guardianship order or child arrangements order.
Local authorities get the same amount for each child they are looking after; they must work with the school to decide how the money is used to support the child’s Personal Education Plan.
Service premium
The service premium is not part of the pupil premium as the rules to attract the service premium are different.
Schools get £320 for every pupil with a parent who:
- is serving in HM Forces
- has retired on a pension from the Ministry of Defence
This funding is to help with pastoral support.
What is Recovery Premium?
The recovery premium grant is part of the government’s package of funding to support pupils whose education has been impacted by coronavirus (COVID-19).
It is a time-limited grant providing over £300m of additional funding for state-funded schools in the 2021 to 2022 academic year and £1bn across the 2022 to 2023 and 2023 to 2024 academic years.
Eligibility and Funding
Recovery premium allocations for mainstream schools will be based on pupil premium eligibility. This includes:
- pupils who are eligible for free school meals (FSM), including eligible children of families who have no recourse to public funds (NRPF)
- pupils who have been eligible for FSM at any point in the last 6 years
- children looked after by local authorities, referred to as looked-after children (LAC), and children previously looked after by local authorities, referred to as previously looked-after children (PLAC)
Recovery premium allocations will be calculated on a per pupil basis, based on the following rates:
Mainstream education:
- £145 per eligible pupil in primary schools
How can Pupil Premium & Recovery Premium be used?
It’s up to school leaders to decide how to spend the pupil premium. This is because school leaders are best-placed to assess their pupils’ needs and use funding to improve attainment. Evidence suggests that pupil premium spending is most effective when schools use a tiered approach, targeting spending across 3 areas, with a particular focus on teaching.
1. Teaching
Investing in high-quality teaching, for example:
- training and professional development for teachers
- recruitment and retention
- support for teachers early in their careers
2. Targeted academic support
Additional support for some pupils focussed on their specific needs, for example:
- one-to-one tuition
- small group tuition
- speech and language therapy
3. Wider approaches
Support for non-academic issues that impact success in school, such as attendance, behaviour and social and emotional challenges. For example:
- school breakfast clubs
- counselling to support emotional health and wellbeing
- help with the cost of educational trips or visits
Schools do not have to spend pupil premium so it solely benefits eligible pupils. They can use it wherever they identify the greatest need.
Like the pupil premium, schools can:
- spend the recovery premium on a wider cohort of pupils than those who are eligible for the funding
- direct recovery premium spending where they think the need is greatest.
As with pupil premium, schools must use their recovery premium on evidence-based approaches to support pupils.