Pupil Premium is funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England.  Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.  DFE, 2022

All schools are required to publish a Pupil Premium Statement every year which sets out how they are spending both the Pupil Premium and Recovery Premium and the outcomes that are being achieved for students.  Our current Pupil Premium Statement can be found below:

Pupil Premium – More Information

In April 2011 the Government identified the need to boost the attainment and progression of students they classed as disadvantaged. The funding allocated in 2012-13 was £1.25 billion and has grown steadily since.

The Pupil Premium funding allocation is calculated according to the number of students in Years 7 to 11 who either receive free school meals or have received free school meals in the last 6 years, also the number of students who have been looked after by their local authority and the number of students whose parent/s are permanent serving armed services personnel. These figures are reported by the school in the October Census.

The pupil premium is paid directly to schools as they are best placed to assess what additional provision their pupils need and it is at the discretion of the school as to how the funds are used.

The Government works closely with the Education Endowment Foundation; they are a charity with a stated “moral imperative – to support teachers and senior leaders to raise attainment and close the disadvantage gap – which roots its response to this educational challenge in the best available evidence”.

Ofsted inspections report on how schools’ use of the funding affects the attainment of their pupil premium (disadvantaged) pupils.

The Government also hold schools to account through performance tables, which include data on:

• the attainment of the pupils who attract the funding
• the progress made by these pupils
• the gap in attainment between disadvantaged pupils and their peers

Pupil Premium at Denbigh

Students are highlighted on the school’s database as being eligible for Pupil Premium support. This information is clearly accessible by each teacher and support member of staff and a classroom teacher will therefore be aware of those students who are Pupil Premium and therefore by the Government definition are disadvantaged and may need extra support to progress and close the attainment gap with their non-disadvantaged peers.

The Education Endowment Fund has created a Teaching and Learning Toolkit which lists methods of support ranked against cost and impact measured in months which, when used alongside the school’s leadership teams professional judgement and expertise, will help them to select the most effective and efficient use of the Pupil Premium Grant.

The EEF’s Pupil Premium Guide recommends that the school adopts a balanced structure to help map out their approach and adopts a tiered model which focuses on:

• high-quality teaching
• targeted academic support
• wider strategies

We follow this advice ensuring that high-quality classroom-based teaching is at the heart of everything we do for all of our students.