Guidance for completing and returning the 14 to 16-year-old pupil premium and free school meals form for the 2024 to 2025 academic year
Updated 4 November 2024
Applies to England
1. Introduction
This guidance helps you complete the return for pupil premium and free school meals for 14 to 16-year-olds.
Use this form to report the number of 14 to 16-year-old students in your institution who are eligible for free school meals, pupil premium, and service pupil premium in the 2024 to 2025 academic year.
Further education and sixth form colleges can enrol students aged 14 to 16 on a full-time study programme and receive funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA). Such programmes include the study of technical qualifications, alongside general qualifications, including English and mathematics, within the key stage 4 curriculum.
For the purposes of this guidance, references to colleges do not include academies for 16 to 19-year-olds, as these are outside the scope of this provision.
More information on pupil premium for 14 to 16-year-olds is detailed in the guidance document 鈥�Full-time enrolment of 14 to 16-year-olds in further education and sixth form colleges鈥�.
2. Who is this publication for
The guidance is for further education and sixth form colleges.
3. When to complete your submission
The deadline to complete your return is 5pm on Friday, 29 November 2024.
4. Accessing the form
Access the 聽 to complete your return.
4.1 Before you start
Make sure you have:
- a
- the total of 14 to 16-year-old students enrolled by your institution as on 1 November 2024
- the number of 14 to 16-year-old students who are eligible for pupil premium, free school meals, the service premium, and who are care leavers
4.2 DfE Sign-in
Sign in to your DfE Sign-in account
Follow the below steps to access your DfE Sign-In account:
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Access the . When prompted, enter your聽DfE Sign-in聽credentials (your username and password) for authentication.
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Choose the organisation for whom you are completing the form for 鈥� this is only required if your DSi account is linked to several organisations.
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The next page will display the details we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed in. This will show the name, address and URN or UKPRN of the organisation, as well as the name and email address of the person who signed into the account.
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If these details are correct, select 鈥楥ontinue鈥� to go to the next page.
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If you believe these details are incorrect, please contact the and we will investigate.聽You can still proceed with your submission.
Your account must be connected to the organisation you are completing the form for. You do not need to add any services in DfE Sign-in; it is used for authentication only.
If you do not have a DfE Sign-in account
You will need to create one by following steps 1 to 5 below:
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Select 鈥榗reate a DfE Sign-in account鈥� the .
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Enter your name and email address (use a valid business email address that contains your name).
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We will send you an email to verify your email address; copy the code from this email and paste it into the box on the verification page.
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Create a memorable password that is at least 14 characters. A good way to create a secure and memorable password is to use 3 random words. You can use numbers, symbols and spaces.
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Sign in using your new credentials, and request access to the organisation for which you would like to submit the form.
Adding an organisation to your DfE Sign-in account
To add a new organisation to your account, follow the steps below:
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Login to your DfE Sign-in account.
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Select 鈥極rganisations鈥�.
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Select 鈥楻equest access to an organisation鈥�.
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Enter the URN or UKPRN of the organisation you would like to add.
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Select the organisation from search results.
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Select 鈥楥onfirm鈥�.
Your request will be sent to the approver of that organisation.
An approver is someone at your organisation responsible for controlling who has access to DfE Sign-in and the services within the system. It is usually an administrator or a senior manager.
For security reasons, you will need the authorisation of one of your organisation鈥檚 approvers before you can access the form.
Once your request to access an organisation has been approved, you can follow the steps outlined under the 鈥楽ign in to your DfE Sign-in account鈥� section to complete the form.
4.3 If you need further assistance
For problems using the DfE Sign-in service, use our to request assistance. When raising a support request, select 鈥榦ther.鈥�
For problems accessing the form, use our .
5. 鈥疌ompleting the form
Once you have authenticated through DfE Sign-in and are in the form, you will find a 鈥楽ave and continue鈥� button on each page which will take you to the next page. The form will remember information you have saved if you sign out or if you leave it open for an extended period. You can resume your submission when you sign back in.
Once you have submitted the form, you鈥檒l be advised of next steps and will receive an email confirmation of your submission. This email will contain a link to download a PDF copy of your submission 鈥� this link will expire after 6 months so you should download a copy as soon as possible.
You can edit and resubmit your form until the submission deadline.
5.1 鈥痀our details
We will show you the information we hold about the organisation you selected when you signed into your DfE Sign-in.
5.2 Total students
14 to 16-year-old students are defined as those who were aged 14 or 15 on 31 August 2024, and are enrolled at the college directly.
This will not include 14 to 16-year-olds enrolled at a school or other institution studying at the college for some of their provision nor will it include 14 to 16-year-olds who have achieved a level 2 qualification and have chosen to enrol on a level 3 programme.
5.3 Free school meals students
This includes those students recorded in the October 2023 school census who are known to have been eligible for free school meals since May 2018 (known as 鈥榚ver 6鈥�).
This also includes those first known to be eligible in the October 2023 school census.
5.4 Care leaver students
This includes students recorded in the January 2024 school census and alternative provision census who were looked after by an English or Welsh local authority immediately before being adopted.
This also includes students who left local authority care on a special guardianship order or child arrangements order (previously known as a residence order).
5.5 Pupil premium students
Students that are eligible for pupil premium are:
- entitled to free school meals - this will include those students recorded in the October 2023 school census who are known to have been eligible for free school meals since May 2018, as well as those first known to be eligible as at October 2023
- no longer eligible for free school meals but have claimed free school meals during the past 6 years (known as 鈥榚ver 6鈥�)
- in care, or have left care through adoption or other formal legal routes such as a child arrangements or special guardianship order
If a student is eligible under more than one category, then they must be counted only once.
Your answer must be less than or equal to the total of free school meal and care leaver students provided.
5.6 Service premium students
Students eligible for the service premium are those who were recorded in the October 2023 school census and have been eligible for the service child premium since the January 2018 school census.
Those students recorded as a service child for the first time on the October 2023 census should also be counted.
Institutions should also include any student whose parent has died in service, where they are now in receipt of pensions under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and the War Pensions Scheme (WPS).
5.7 Declarations page
You must complete the declarations. You will not be able to submit your form without completing this section fully.
5.8 Submission summary
The summary page allows you to check your answers before submitting the form. You can change your answers using the 鈥楥hange鈥� link that appears next to each data entry.
You can also save this summary by selecting 鈥楽ave summary as PDF鈥� before you submit. Alternatively, you can download it by following the steps below.
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On the summary page, select 鈥楩ile鈥� and then 鈥楶rint鈥�. A new window will open.
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From the dropdown, select 鈥楽ave as PDF鈥�.
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Select 鈥楽ave鈥�.
We cannot accept a PDF summary of your answers as proof of submission. You must still submit the form.
You must select 鈥楽ubmit鈥� at the bottom of this page and receive a unique reference number for your submission to be processed.
5.9 鈥疌辞苍蹿颈谤尘补迟颈辞苍
The final page confirms your聽submission and shows聽a unique reference number. You should make a note of this reference number.
You will then be sent a confirmation email to the email address that you logged into DfE Sign-in with. This will contain a link to download a PDF of your submission, which is valid for 6 months from the date of your submission.
5.10 Amending your submission
You can make changes to the form and resubmit until聽5pm on Friday, 29 November 2024. To do this, you will need to sign back in and resubmit your form.
You can amend your data until the deadline. We cannot grant any extensions to the deadline.
If you submit your form and then make any subsequent submissions, we will take the details of your most recently聽 submitted form and disregard previous versions.
You will receive a new unique submission reference for an amended submission.
6. Enquiries
If you have read this guidance and have questions, contact us via the聽.