Pupil Premium spending at Westfield Academy

Pupil Premium is the name given to extra funding the Government has set aside to support students from disadvantaged backgrounds. The Government believes that this Pupil Premium (which is additional to the main school funding, and based on the percentage of students receiving Free School Meals, as well as those who are currently being looked after by Social Services) is the best way to address current inequalities of opportunity. They believe that by ensuring that money, to reach the students who need it most, they have the best chance of narrowing the gap between the achievement of students from both advantaged and disadvantaged backgrounds.

Purpose

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 & funding

The Government has announced that Pupil Premium rates will remain unchanged for the financial year 2021 to 2022.

From April 2021, Pupil Premium allocations for mainstream and special schools will be calculated based on the number of eligible pupils recorded by schools in their Census in October 2020. Schools get pupil premium funding based on the number of pupils they have from the following two groups:

• Free School Meals: Schools get £1,345 for every primary-aged pupil, or £955 for every secondary-aged pupil, who claims Free School Meals, or who has claimed Free School Meals in the last six years.

• Looked-after & previously looked-after children: Schools get £2,345 for every pupil who has left Local Authority care through adoption, a special guardianship order or child arrangement 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.

It has been for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium is spent since they are best placed to assess what additional provisions should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility. New measure have been included in the Performance Tables that capture the achievement of those pupils covered by the Pupil Premium. From September 2012, schools are also required to publish online information about how the premium has been used.

To find out more about Pupil Premium, we recommend you visit the DfE's website: https://www.gov.uk/topic/schools-colleges-childrens-services/support-for-children-young-people.