At St Matthew’s Research School, we believe every child deserves the opportunity to flourish. The updated Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) Pupil Premium Guide found here, provides a powerful framework to help schools close the attainment gap and support economically disadvantaged pupils more effectively.
The guide encourages schools to move beyond labels and understand pupils as individuals, with unique strengths and challenges. It outlines a clear, evidence-informed approach built around five key principles:
1. Diagnose Needs Thoughtfully Start with a deep understanding of your pupils’ needs. Use a wide range of data — academic, behavioural, attendance, and wellbeing — to identify root causes.
Example Strategy: A primary school used pupil voice surveys and attendance data to identify social anxiety as a barrier to learning. They introduced a nurture group and over time, see improvement in attendance among economically disadvantaged pupils.
2. Use Strong Evidence Ground your strategy in high-quality research. The EEF’s Teaching and Learning Toolkit found here, The Early Years Toolkit found here and the Promising Programmes, found here, offer practical insights into what works.
Example Strategy: A secondary school implemented metacognition using the EEF’s guidance. Pupils learned to plan, monitor, and evaluate their learning.
3. Implement with Care Focus on doing fewer things better. Prioritise high-quality teaching, targeted academic support, and wider strategies, to address non-academic barriers.
Example Strategy: A school embedded instructional coaching for teachers, focusing on formative assessment and feedback.
4. Monitor and Evaluate Embed a cycle of review and refinement. Use tools like RAG rating and diagnostic assessments to ensure your strategy remains responsive.
Example Strategy:A school used termly data reviews to adjust interventions. When phonics support was not yielding results, they switched to a structured literacy programme with proven impact.
5. Sustain Change Build a long-term, three-year strategy that is revisited annually. Engage staff, families, and pupils in the process to ensure meaningful and lasting impact.
Example Strategy:A multi-academy trust aligned its pupil premium strategy with its school improvement plan. They invested in leadership development and curriculum design, focusing in on sustained improvements across multiple schools.
So, let’s not be overwhelmed by the statistics. Instead, let’s be empowered by the evidence that tells us that with the right strategy, we can potentially stop the gap from growing — and actually start closing it. Below, are four questions for leaders looking to turn potential into progress.
Questions for School Leaders:
1. Are you diagnosing pupil needs with enough depth and precision?- How well do we understand the root causes of underachievement for our economically disadvantaged pupils?- Are we using a wide range of data (academic, attendance, wellbeing, pupil voice), to inform our strategy?
2. Is our professional development programme truly improving classroom practice?- Have we streamlined PD to focus on high-leverage teaching techniques?- Are we embedding practice and supporting staff to sustain change over time?
3. How well are we aligning our pupil premium strategy with whole-school improvement plans?- Does our strategy reflect the tiered approach (Quality Teaching, Targeted Support, Wider Strategies)?- Are subject leaders, SENCo and other stakeholders actively involved in shaping and delivering the strategy?
4. Are we evaluating impact in a way that leads to meaningful change?- What evidence are we using to assess whether our approaches are working?- Are we willing to stop or adapt strategies that aren’t delivering the intended outcomes?
References:
Department for Education. (n.d.) Pupil Premium. [Blog] Teaching Blog. Available at: https://teaching.blog.gov.uk/c… (Accessed: 9 October 2025). Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). (2024). The EEF Guide to the Pupil Premium. [online] Available at: https://educationendowmentfoun… [Accessed 30 Sep. 2025]. Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). (2024). New and updated resources to help schools maximise the impact of their Pupil Premium funding. [online] Available at: https://educationendowmentfoun… [Accessed 30 Sep. 2025]. Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). (2024). Develop your strategy. [online] Available at: https://educationendowmentfoun… [Accessed 30 Sep. 2025]. St Matthew’s Research School. (2023). Disadvantage, what disadvantage? [online] Available at: https://researchschool.org.uk/… [Accessed 30 Sep. 2025].
