What is pupil premium, and what is it for?
Additional funding given to schools in England for pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds, intended to close the attainment gap between them and their peers.
Who it is paid for: pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been at any point in the previous six years — the Ever 6 measure; children who are looked after or have left care through adoption or a guardianship order, who attract a higher rate; and children of service personnel, under a separate smaller grant.
The Ever 6 provision matters because family circumstances fluctuate, and a pupil whose eligibility lapses does not stop being affected by earlier disadvantage.
The critical practical point: it must be claimed. Funding follows registration for free school meals, not entitlement. A family that is eligible but has never registered — because their child receives universal infant free school meals anyway, or because of stigma — means the school receives nothing. Schools actively encourage registration for exactly this reason, and it is worth registering even where the meals themselves are already provided.
How schools must use it. The funding is not ring-fenced to individual pupils — schools decide how to spend it, but must use it to improve outcomes for disadvantaged pupils, must publish a strategy statement annually setting out how, and must have regard to evidence of what works. The Education Endowment Foundation's evidence summaries are the standard reference.
What the evidence supports: high-quality teaching for all, which the guidance places first; targeted academic support such as structured tuition and small-group intervention; and wider strategies addressing attendance, behaviour and enrichment.
What is discouraged: spending it on general budget pressures, and interventions with weak evidence.
Whether it has worked is genuinely contested. The disadvantage gap narrowed for a period and then stalled and widened, particularly following pandemic disruption. Analyses have questioned whether the funding level is sufficient given wider budget pressures, and whether schools with high proportions of eligible pupils face costs the formula does not capture.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland operate their own equivalents.