Pupil Premium

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

Funding rates for the financial year 2025-26 are as follows:

Service pupil premium is additional funding for schools with children and young people of service families.

Pupils in state-funded schools in England attract the service pupil premium grant, at the rate of:

• £350 per eligible pupil in the 2025 to 2026 financial year

Pupils are eligible if they meet any of the following criteria:

• one of their parents is serving in the regular armed forces (including pupils with a parent who is on full commitment as part of the full-time reserve service) or is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England and they have been registered as a ‘service child’ in the most recent autumn DfE school census
• they do not currently have ‘service child’ status but they have been registered as a ‘service child’ on any DfE school census in the past 6 years
• one of their parents died whilst serving in the armed forces and the pupil receives a pension under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme or the War Pensions Scheme

This funding is primarily to enable schools to offer pastoral support and help mitigate the negative impact of family mobility or parental deployment. It can also be used to help improve the academic progress of eligible pupils if the school deems this to be a priority.

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.

Details of the funding criteria for SPP is outlined in the Service pupil premium section.

Key Principles for Backworth Park Primary School:

• We ensure that teaching and learning opportunities meets the needs of all of our pupils and that appropriate provision is made for pupils who may belong to vulnerable groups. This includes ensuring that the needs of socially disadvantaged pupils are adequately assessed and addressed.
• In making provision for socially disadvantaged pupils, we recognise that not all pupils who receive Free School Meals will be socially disadvantaged.
• 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 Pupil Premium funding to support any pupil, or groups of pupils, who the school has legitimately identified as being socially disadvantaged.
• Pupil Premium funding is allocated following a needs analysis which will identify priority groups or individuals.  Limited funding and resources means that not all children receiving Free School Meals will be in receipt of interventions at one time.

Provision:

At Backworth Park Primary School, Pupil Premium funding is used in a variety of ways to help to target appropriate support at identified individuals and groups of pupils to overcome any barriers to learning, including improving attendance, and to look to narrow the gap to improve attainment.  It is also used to provide enrichment activities to enhance curriculum provision for all, including those pupils eligible for Pupil Premium funding. 

Allocations:

Please see the Pupil Premium Strategy Statement below: