Pupil Premium

What is the Pupil Premium?

Pupil Premium funding is additional funding which is given to schools in order to raise the attainment of the most disadvantaged pupils of all abilities and to close the gap between them and their peers. The Pupil Premium is, in the opinion of the government, the best way to try to give students who require additional support, the best start possible in education and in life. This is why schools receive additional funding, on top of main school funding allocation.

‘Diminishing the difference’ ‘Narrowing the Gap’ are often talked about. This phrase refers to the gap in performance at GCSE between students from more advantaged backgrounds and those who are in receipt of Pupil Premium Funding. Nationally, there is a clear divide between these two groups of students, which will be explored in more detail later in this document. There is overwhelming evidence that disadvantaged students achieve and progress at a slower rate than those from more privileged backgrounds:

Children from more disadvantaged backgrounds (17%) are less than half as likely to enter higher education as other children (35%).
The reading skills of the highest-performing 15-year-olds from poor backgrounds are, on average, about two years behind the highest-performing pupils from privileged backgrounds.
Only a quarter of boys from working-class backgrounds take up middle-class (professional or managerial) jobs.
Free School Meal (FSM) students are at least 3 times more likely to be permanently excluded than their peers, twice as likely to have a Special Educational Needs statement and are more likely to change schools. They are also more likely to have literacy and numeracy problems and national research suggests that they are more likely to experience poorer quality teaching

(Source: Closing Gaps in attainment, Robert Hill, Association of School and College Leaders, 2013).

Pupil Premium Strategy – The Fernwood School 2021-2022