What is Pupil Premium Funding?

Our vision is that every pupil will leave our school achieving academic success, fully equipped and empowered to embrace their future. We want all pupils, irrespective of their background or the challenges they face, to make good progress and to achieve the best outcomes they can across all subject areas. The focus of our pupil premium strategy is to support disadvantaged pupils to achieve that goal, including progress for those who are already high attainers.

Service Pupil Premium (SPP) is also allocated for children whose parents are currently serving in the armed forces, or have been within the last 5 years. It is combined into pupil premium payments to make it easier for schools to manage their spending. 

The amount of Pupil Premium funding allocated to our school for 2026-27 is £41,520

It is for schools to decide how this additional funding is spent but they must be accountable for this, showing the impact the funding has had on supporting disadvantaged children with their learning to ensure they achieve at least good attainment and progress.  

At Medstead a tiered approach is used to achieve this, including high quality teaching, targeted academic support and wider strategies. The strategies used are based on research on most effective practice including the EEF Teaching and Learning Toolkit and DFE Guidance on the most effective ways to support disadvantaged pupils’ achievement.

Who is eligible for Pupil Premium Funding?

Pupil Premium Funding is allocated to all maintained schools according to the number of:

• pupils who are recorded as eligible for free school meals (FSM)
• pupils that have been recorded as eligible for free school meals in the past 6 years (referred to as Ever 6 FSM)
• children previously looked after by a local authority

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.

Pupil Premium Strategy for 2026-27

Please see below for our Pupil Premium Strategy for 2026-27. This statement details how our school has used the pupil premium funding to help improve the attainment and progress of our disadvantaged pupils.