How to report on the pupil premium

Get to grips with your pupil premium reporting requirements, and see examples of other schools' strategy statements.

Last reviewed on 27 March 2025See updates
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Contents
  1. You must publish your strategy statement on your website
  2. You must use the DfE's strategy statement template
  3. You must spend the pupil premium on 'evidence-informed' activities
  4. See examples of statements from schools

You must publish your strategy statement on your website

This is a requirement if your pupil premium allocation is based on more than 5 eligible pupils (not including pupils that are only eligible for service pupil premium).

If your school meets this criteria, you must update your strategy statement every year and publish it on your website by 31 December.

If your allocation is based on 5 pupils or less, you're not required to publish a statement.

This is explained in section 5.2 of the conditions of grant.

You must use the DfE's strategy statement template

You can find the template on the DfE website. 

Your statement must include:

  • An overview of your school and pupil premium details, including the:
    • Number of pupils in school
    • Proportion of pupil premium eligible pupils
    • Years your strategy covers
  • A funding overview, covering:
    • Pupil premium and recovery premium allocations for this academic year
    • Pupil premium carried forward from previous years
    • Total budget for this academic year

You must also include for the current academic year (part A of the template):

  • A statement of intent
  • A summary of the main challenges to achievement faced by pupil premium eligible pupils
  • The outcomes you're aiming for by the end of this strategy plan
  • How the pupil premium allocation will be spent this academic year to address those challenges, with evidence supporting your approach

And for the previous academic year (part B of the template), you must:

  • Outline the performance of your disadvantaged pupils
  • Explain how you've assessed disadvantaged pupils' performance
  • Include the names of any non-DfE programmes you purchased 

Part B also includes optional sections on the service pupil premium and space for you to provide any further information you think is important.

Alongside the template, the DfE has example strategy statements for primary, secondary and special schools.

Academies: check if your funding agreement requires you to publish anything different.

You must spend the pupil premium on 'evidence-informed' activities

Activities must be chosen from the DfE's 'menu of approaches', which is in line with the Education Endowment Foundation's (EEF's) tiered approach.

The EEF recommends that you prioritise approaches that support and promote high-quality teaching in schools. However, the exact balance of spending between categories will vary depending on:

  • Your pupils' specific needs
  • The size of your pupil premium cohort 

This is explained in section 4.1 of the conditions of grant.

See examples of statements from schools

Please note: in the links below, see the most recent strategy statements for examples in the required format. Statements from previous years may not be published using the latest template.

Primary schools

Secondary schools

Special school

Article updates

18 June 2024

In line with the latest pupil premium guidance and conditions of grant, we have:

  • Added the publication deadline for the 2024/25 academic year
  • Set out how the pupil premium must be spent (and linked to our more detailed article on this)

There have been no changes to requirements.

4 April 2023

We updated this article in line with the latest guidance for the 2023-24 financial year.

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