At Bishop’s Waltham Junior School the health, safety and well-being of every child is our top priority.
Pupil Premium 
The pupil premium grant provides funding to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged pupils in state-funded schools in England.
The service pupil premium (SPP) provides support for children and young people of service families. It is combined into pupil premium payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending. Pupils that the SPP intends to support are not necessarily from financially disadvantaged backgrounds.
We want to support all schools to use the wealth of evidence of ‘what works’, evaluated by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF), to use this funding effectively to drive high and rising standards for disadvantaged pupils.
Funding criteria
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
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 Service Pupil Premium are outlined in the Service pupil premium section.
Funding rates for financial year 2026-27
This table shows how the pupil premium grant is allocated to schools and local authorities in financial year 2023-24, based on per pupil rates.
| Pupil eligibility criteria | Amount of funding for each primary-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 | School |
| Pupils previously looked after by a local authority or other state care | £2,690 | School |
| Children who are looked after by the local authority | £2,690 | Local authority |
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 to include all pupils from households in receipt of Universal Credit. There will then 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.
Pupils who were eligible for FSM before the expansion will continue to be part of the Ever 6 FSM cohort after the expansion. That includes any pupil whose household income increases after the expansion, such that they either lose FSM eligibility altogether or become eligible for FSM through Expanded FSM. Such pupils will remain part of the Ever 6 FSM cohort for 6 years.
Service pupil premium
Service pupil premium is additional funding for schools with pupils who have parents serving in the armed forces. It has been combined into pupil premium payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending.
Pupils in state-funded schools in England attract the service pupil premium grant, at the rate of £360 per eligible pupil in financial year 2026-27, if they meet one or more 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 - this includes pupils with a parent who is in the armed forces of another nation and is stationed in England
- registered as a ‘service child’ on any school census in the past 6 years
- one of their parents died while 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 Strategy Statement
Pupil Premium Spending
Our pupil premium money has been used to provide a range of additional support for our children and these interventions, along with quality first teaching have started to have a positive impact on children’s attainment and self-belief.
Through targeted interventions we are working hard to eliminate barriers to learning and progress. One of the schools aims is to ensure that ALL groups of pupils make good progress in order to reach age related expectations as they move through the school.
Targeted support is being provided through one-to-one and small group tuition in Years 3/4 and 5/6. Senior leaders also provide additional support through interventions/targeted tutorials in Years 5 and 6. These interventions support children in knowing where they are and what they need to do to improve their work.
Increasing Parental Engagement has also been a focus at the school. A range of learning opportunities have been provided to help parents develop their own skills in English and maths - to make them better equipped at supporting their children at home.
How will the school measure the impact of the pupil premium?
To monitor progress on attainment, new measures have been included in the performance tables that will capture the achievement of pupils covered by the Pupil Premium. At Bishop’s Waltham Junior School, the usual cycle of data collection and the monitoring and tracking of the cohort’s attainment, will be used to inform pupil progress and enable the early identification of need, support and appropriate intervention. Review meetings will take place at each milestone (approximately every 9 weeks) and will include a member of Senior Management, teachers, TAs and the Pupil Premium Tutor.
At each milestone, the school will review the impact of actions taken and will plan for how the funding will be specifically allocated over the next phase. When selecting pupils for Pupil Premium target groups, the school will look at all pupils across the school. There are some pupils who are not eligible for PP who will benefit from these groups if their needs are similar and we believe progress can be made towards individual targets.
Pupil Premium Funding and the impact of this is a regular item on the governors’ School Improvement and Resources committees.
Designated staff member in charge: Mrs Katherine Daniels (Deputy Headteacher) k.daniels@bwjunior.hants.sch.uk
Nominated governor: Mr Robin Shepherd
