Pupil Premium

What is Pupil Premium?

Introduced in 2011, Pupil Premium is a sum of money given to schools each year by the Government to improve the attainment of disadvantaged children. This is based on research showing that children from lower income families perform less well at school than their peers. The pupil premium is intended to directly benefit the children who are eligible, helping to narrow the gap between them and their classmates.

Is your child eligible?

Schools are given a pupil premium for:

  • Children who have qualified for free school meals at any point in the past six years. The school receives £1320 for each of these children.
  • Children who are or have been looked after under local authority care for more than one day. These children are awarded a premium of £2300.
  • Children from service families who receive a child pension from the Ministry of Defence. They are awarded £300.
    In March 2018 the Government announced that free school meals would only be available to children in KS2 whose families have a net income of £7400 or under, effective from 1 April 2018. If your child was previously entitled to free school meals but is no longer, they will still receive pupil premium based on the ‘Ever 6’ qualification (a pupil who has ever had free school meals in the past six years).

How to claim

Prior to April 2018, children qualified for free schools meals – and accordingly pupil premium – if you received any of the following benefits:

  • Income support
  • Income-based jobseekers’ allowance:?
  • Income-related employment and support allowance
  • Support under V5of the Immigration & Asylum Act 1999
  • The guaranteed element of state pension credit
  • Tax child credit, provided that you are not also entitled to working tax credit and have an annual income of £16,190 or less

These benefits have now been rolled into a single benefit, called Universal Credit. From April 2018, free school meals and pupil premium will only be allocated to pupils with a family income under £7400 (net) per year.

Please speak to the office team who will be able to tell you what you need to do to register your child as eligible. The form is easy to complete and we are happy to help in any way we can in a private and sensitive way.

Pupil Premium Documents