Pupil Premium
The pupil premium is additional funding given to schools to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils and close the gap between them and their peers. The Government believes that the pupil premium is the best way to address current underlying inequalities between children eligible for free school meals (FSM) and their non FSM peers, by ensuring the funding to tackle disadvantage reaches the pupils who need it most. The Government uses eligibility for free school meals as the main measure of deprivation at pupil level.
Common barriers for disadvantaged pupils can be; weak language and communication skills, lack of confidence, more frequent behavioural difficulties, attendance and punctuality issues and less support at home. The challenges are complex and varied, therefore, it is important that individual needs are identified and catered for as we are very clear that negative, outside influences are not an excuse for underachievement.
At St. Mary’s and St. Benedict’s school, there is a school-wide commitment to raising achievement for ALL pupils and a key objective for the use of the pupil premium grant is to close the gap between pupil groups. More detail on what we intend to do and how we are going to manage it is within this document: Pupil Premium Strategy 2024-27.
Department for Education
Articles and advice for children and young people.