The pupil premium grant is funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England.

The grant also provides support for children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces, referred to as service pupil premium (SPP). Pupils that the SPP intends to support are not necessarily from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.

Our Pupil Premium Strategy Statement

The Report is saved in PDF format. If you are unable to open it then you can download a free PDF reader from Adobe.

Funding criteria

Pupil premium funding is allocated to eligible schools based on the number of:

• pupils who are recorded as eligible for free school meals, or have been recorded as eligible in the past 6 years (referred to as Ever 6 FSM)
• children previously looked after by a local authority or other state care, including children adopted from state care or equivalent from outside England and Wales

Pupil premium is not a personal budget for individual pupils, and schools do not have to spend pupil premium so that it solely benefits pupils who meet the funding criteria. It can be used:

• to support other pupils with identified needs, such as those who have or have had a social worker, or who act as a carer
• for whole class interventions which will also benefit non-disadvantaged pupils

Pupil premium funding is allocated to local authorities based on the number of:

• looked-after children, supported by the local authority
• pupils who meet any of the eligibility criteria and who attend an independent setting, where the local authority pays full tuition fees

For pupils who are looked-after children, funding should be managed by the local authority’s virtual school head (VSH)  in consultation with the child’s school.

Pupil Premium Strategy Impact Review 2025-26

Over the last three years, outcomes for disadvantaged pupils have improved across key measures. Phonics results strengthened significantly, with 100% of disadvantaged pupils passing the PSC in 2025 and 50% achieving the standard in 2026. Early attainment has risen, with EYFS GLD increasing from 60% to 73%.

In mathematics, targeted fluency interventions have had clear impact: in 2025, 29% of disadvantaged pupils achieved full marks in the Multiplication Tables Check and 43% scored above 20, with remaining pupils closing previous gaps following further intervention. In 2026, 60% of disadvantaged pupils achieved full marks.

Attendance has improved markedly, with persistent absence for disadvantaged pupils reducing from 42.9% in 2023 to 20% in 2026.

Reading fluency interventions have also been effective, with several disadvantaged pupils making more than 12 months’ progress in decoding accuracy and 10–14 months’ progress in reading rate and comprehension from baseline to July. These improvements demonstrate that Pupil Premium funding is supporting disadvantaged pupils to make strong gains in early literacy, mathematical fluency, attendance and targeted intervention outcomes.