Pupil Premium

Pupil Premium Strategy

Pupil Premium at Babington Academy: Our Values & Ethos

Closing the gap is central to everything we do at Babington. We have a moral commitment to ensure that our students from disadvantaged backgrounds have the support to accelerate their progress to achieve their full potential.

Leaders and staff are ambitious for all, including disadvantaged pupils and those with special educational needs and/or disabilities (SEND). Leaders have prioritised high expectations and equal opportunities for all. - Ofsted report (2023)

There is a clear policy and strategy for pupil premium - solution focused - demonstrating a deep understanding of what it means to be disadvantaged. It follows DfE direction and meets Ofsted requirements fully.

Disadvantaged able students are championed. They are set ambitious attainment targets and taught with demanding academic challenge. They are supported exceptionally well to understand their potential, to be aspirant with purpose and signposted access to the experiences and contacts those from more advantaged homes would have. Emotional and social support is also prioritised. - DFE Advisor for Pupil Premium, Dr Carter Wall (Jan, 2021).

Purpose

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

Pupil eligibility

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

pupils who are recorded as eligible for free school meals (FSM), 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.

Implications of the free school meals expansion on pupil premium

From the start of the 2026 to 2027 academic year, the Department for Education (DfE) is delivering an expansion to FSM eligibility. There will now be 2 categories of FSM:

Targeted FSM, which continues to be based on the existing £7,400 income threshold
Expanded FSM, which will apply to meals only, covering pupils who do not qualify for Targeted FSM, but who are in households in receipt of Universal Credit

Following the expansion of FSM, only pupils eligible for 'Targeted FSM' will be part of the Ever 6 FSM cohort. This means that pupils who become eligible for FSM for the first time through the new Expanded FSM category will not attract pupil premium funding.

Funding rates for financial year 2025-26

This table shows how the pupil premium grant is allocated to schools and local authorities in financial year 2026 - 2027, based on per pupil rates:

Pupil eligibility criteria	Amount of funding for each primary-aged pupil per year	Amount of funding for each secondary-aged pupil per year	Funding is paid to
Pupils who are eligible for free school meals, or have been eligible in the past 6 years	£1,550	£1,100	School
Pupils previously looked after by a local authority or other state care	£2,690	£2,690	School
Children who are looked after by the local authority	£2,690	£2,690	Local authority

Service pupil premium

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 £360 per eligible pupil.

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.

Funding paid to schools

To ensure that pupil premium is focused on effective approaches to raising the educational attainment of disadvantaged pupils, schools must spend their pupil premium grant on evidence-informed activities in line with the ‘menu of approaches’ set by DfE. The menu aligns with the EEF’s 3-tiered approach, which helps schools allocate spending across the following areas:

developing high-quality teaching, for example through professional development and recruitment and retention
providing targeted academic support, such as one-to-one or small group tuition
tackling non-academic barriers to academic success, such as difficulties with attendance, behaviour and social and emotional wellbeing

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.

Accountability

Schools must show how they are using their pupil premium effectively:

by publishing a statement on their website each academic year using the DfE template
through inspections by Ofsted - inspectors may discuss plans schools have to spend their pupil premium
through scrutiny of pupil premium plans by governors and trustees.