Resources to support effective use of the pupil premium on Creating Value In Schools

Pupil premium

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Top takeaways

The purpose of the pupil premium funding is to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in schools in England. But how can school leaders know they are making the best, most impactful use of this money?

The EEF’s guide to the pupil premium is designed to support school leaders in planning, implementing, monitoring and sustaining an effective strategy. It’s been updated and enhanced with fuller guidance and insights from school leaders, and includes downloadable resources. It's accompanied by a podcast sharing findings from analysis of pupil premium statements: what are the top priorities for schools at the moment, and what are they spending on?

What does the guide include?

The guidance takes readers through a five-step strategy.

Diagnose your pupils’ needs.
Use reliable evidence to support your strategy.
Develop your strategy.
Deliver and monitor your strategy.
Evaluate and sustain your strategy.

Each stage has a separate page, including:

Short videos from school leaders, explaining their approach
Quotes to highlight key points
A ‘Take action’ section, with do and don’t tips
Links to relevant resources
Explanation and guidance.

Downloadable documents include:

The EEF’s resources align with the DfE’s guidance and supporting materials, which include a pupil premium strategy template and worked examples.

What are schools focusing their pupil premium spend on?

As well as the toolkit, the EEF have released a podcast in their Evidence into Action series, Sustaining your Pupil Premium strategy. In it Natalie Ohene, senior policy manager at EEF, shares findings from research based on analysis of pupil premium statements.

What are schools focusing on? What are the priority areas?

Attainment in English and literacy. Within this, reading and speech and language came out as the biggest priorities.
Attendance. This tended to be more of an issue in larger and secondary schools, and schools with a higher proportion of pupil premium pupils.
Social, emotional and mental health (SEMH) and wellbeing. This was more of an issue in primaries than secondary schools.

Digging in deeper

Want to dig into some of these issues? Check out these research digests.

In terms of the approaches used, they found that schools are allocating more budget to targeted interventions and high quality teaching.

93% were spending on targeted English or literacy interventions.
92% were spending on CPD.
86% were spending on tuition, with 68% focused on small group tuition.

Advice from school leaders

Headteachers Lisa Wise and Stuart Mayle talked about their approaches to pupil premium spend and what was having an impact. Their tips and suggestions:

Make it a whole school approach; it’s got to be everyone’s business.
Never assume. Keep checking what you’re doing, and be forensic in your data use.
Don’t do something new for the sake of it. That shiny new thing may not be your solution.
Focus on long-term, sustainable impact, not short-term box-ticking.
Do fewer things, better.

Remember that:

Pupil premium is just one lens to see things through.
Investment in CPD focused on high quality teaching and learning is likely to be beneficial.
You’ve got to get to know your community and their particular barriers to learning.

Areas for reflection and action

Use the discussion prompts to stimulate thinking with school leaders, as well as governors and trustees. For example:

What specific challenges do disadvantaged pupils face within your school?
How does your pupil premium strategy promote high quality teaching across your school?
What are the current priorities outlined in your school’s pupil premium strategy? Are those priorities aligned with other school development plans and current practices?
What are the recent successes or challenges that have emerged as a result of your strategy?

Use the recommended reading below to delve into areas which may be relevant to your setting, such as pupil engagement or understanding the impact of poverty on children’s experience of school.

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Resources to support effective use of the pupil premium