Pupil Premium Strategy

Pupil premium is additional funding for publicly funded schools in England. It’s designed to help disadvantaged pupils of all abilities perform better, and close the gap between them and their peers.

In the 2022 to 2023 financial year, schools will receive the following funding for each pupil registered as eligible for free school meals (FSM) at any point in the last 6 years:

  • £1,385 for pupils in reception to year 6                     

Schools will also receive £2,410 for every pupil who has left local authority care through adoption, a special guardianship order or child arrangements 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.

The service premium is not part of the pupil premium as the rules to attract the service premium are different. A premium of £320 for children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces. This service premium is designed to address the emotional and social well-being of these pupils and to provide pastoral support.

It is for schools to decide how the Pupil Premium, allocated to schools per FSM pupil, is spent, since they are best placed to assess what additional provision should be made for the individual pupils within their responsibility.


Schools are free to spend the Pupil Premium as they see fit. However they will be held accountable for how they have used the additional funding to support pupils as the PPG provides funding for two separate policies:

  • raising the attainment of disadvantaged pupils of all abilities to reach their potential

  • supporting children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces

For further details of our pupil premium please see below.

At Ferncumbe we use our Pupil Premium funding to support academic interventions and resources, but we also acknowledge that the attainment and progress of children can be affected by a child's self-esteem and well-being. We therefore also use our Pupil Premium funding to support pastoral support, enrichment activities and to subsidise educational visits.

We continuously review our provision and the governors challenge our use of the funding to narrow the achievement gap. We measure the impact of the pupil premium spending by tracking each individual's progress and knowing the individual child's needs both academically and socially and emotionally. We have a designated member of staff who tracks the spend and the impact of the additional funding on each child.

In making provision for those children in receipt of PPG, we recognise that not all pupils who receive free school meals will be socially disadvantaged. As a school we also recognise that not all pupils who are socially disadvantaged are registered or qualify for free school meals. We reserve the right to allocate the PP funding to support any pupil or groups of pupils the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.

We are currently in the process of reviewing our 2022-2023 Pupil Premium strategy and the impact on learners and creating a new strategy for 2023-2024. These will both be published later in the term.