The Pupil Premium Grant (PPG) is additional funding to improve education outcomes for disadvantaged pupils (and to support children and young people with parents in the regular armed forces) in schools in England. Evidence shows that disadvantaged children generally face additional challenges in reaching their potential at school and often do not perform as well as other pupils.

Pupil Premium Strategy Statement and Impact 2025-26

Funding allocations for 2026-27

• Pupil Premium: £1,550 for each eligible primary aged pupil.
• £2,690 for each Looked After Child.
• £360 for each pupil with a parent who is serving in HM Forces or has retired on a pension from the Ministry of Defence.

Key principles for using the Pupil Premium Grant at St Mary’s Catholic Primary Academy

• St Mary’s has an academy-wide commitment to raise achievement for pupils who are eligible for pupil premium and knows these pupils must make faster progress than non-eligible pupils, and is determined to achieve this.
• St Mary’s never confuses eligible pupils with low ability and strives to bring out the best in this group of pupils and support them to achieve the highest levels.
• St Mary’s creates an overall package of support aimed to tackle the range of barriers including; attendance, behaviour, external factors, professional development focusing on improving outcomes for eligible pupils, always improving the quality of teaching and learning, opportunities for first-hand experiences and development of literacy (including oracy) and numeracy skills.
• St Mary’s directs resources for first quality teaching and interventions to accelerate progress of eligible pupils and close the attainment gap compared to their peers.
• St Mary’s uses robust diagnostic assessment to carefully track the impact of targeted spending (interventions, projects or pedagogy) on attainment and progress of eligible pupils.
• The pupil premium leader, and the rest of the senior leadership team, have a clear overview of how funding is allocated and the difference it is making to the outcomes of pupils termly.
• St Mary’s ensures class teachers, curriculum leaders, teaching assistants and pastoral support know which pupils are eligible for pupil premium so they can take responsibility for accelerating progress, and accountability is shared across the academy, through performance management and pupil progress meetings.
• The Local Governing Body is ambitious for all pupils and closely monitors the academy’s effectiveness in closing the gap between different groups of pupils each term.

‘Our tiered approach to Pupil Premium Spending’

Our tiered approach, as shown in the diagram below, has been adopted on the basis of strong external evidence from the EEF (Education Endowment Foundation), the DfE (Department for Education) and other research platforms.