Education Endowment Foundation:EEF blog: Designing and sustaining pupil premium strategies

Covid has potentially reversed a decade of progress in closing the attainment gap. The evidence is clear that disadvantaged students have fallen further behind during the pandemic. And we know that these students will also face the biggest challenges in educational recovery.

In this context, it is more important than ever to focus our efforts on what evidence tells us is most likely to be effective for pupils from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

A decade of research into educational disadvantage has shown there are no ​‘silver bullets’, but engaging with evidence offers schools a valuable tool for understanding which practices and programmes are most likely to deliver the greatest impact.

Our new pupil premium guide is designed as a practical starting point to support school leaders to develop, implement and monitor an evidence-informed approach to their pupil premium strategy. The guide suggests a four-step cycle for school leaders to follow when developing and sustaining their strategy.

For the first time, the updated pupil premium reporting template requires schools to demonstrate that they have considered evidence when developing their strategy. We hope that the new section in this guide on ​‘using and interpreting evidence’ will support school leaders to engage critically with evidence as they develop their strategy for the 2021 – 22 academic year and beyond.

Supporting education recovery for those children most in need will not be an easy task. And yet, our hope is that this guidance will help to support an excellent, evidence-informed education system in England that creates great opportunities for all children and young people, regardless of their family background.