CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) CATCH-UP PREMIUM
The government announced a one-off universal £650 million catch up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time after school closure. This is especially important for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds.
School allocations were calculated on a per pupil basis, with mainstream schools receiving £80 for each pupil from reception to year 11 inclusive.
Further about the Catch-up Premium can be found here:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium
Whitegrove Primary School received a total payment of £33,120 during the 2020-21 academic year.
How we used the Catch Up Premium
Additional Teaching
During the Autumn term we were able to release two experienced teachers from the classroom to lead quality catch up interventions for identified pupils. This included both small group work and one to one work with an emphasis on the core subject areas (reading, writing and maths). This programme for Key Stage 2 children who were unable to return to school during summer term 2020 enabled us to bridge gaps in knowledge and for the children to access the relevant year group curriculum in the classroom.
Cost - £18,321
Continual Professional Development
As a staff group we took full advantage of high quality training and information based webinars in order to meet the needs of all children returning to school. This included external providers in addition to sessions offered by Bracknell Forest Local Authority and enabled us to be fully prepared for both the return to school and the second period of school closure during Spring term 2021. We shared excellent teaching practice and ensured all children received high quality first teaching across the school.
Cost - £2,803
Support for SEMH
Through RAG rating all children during the beginning of the Autumn term, we identified those groups of children who needed additional social and emotional support and where learning behaviours were impacting progress. We were then able to deploy addition HLTA and LSA time to meet these needs which fell beyond academic catch-up but were affecting the children’s readiness for learning. This was particularly applicable to a number of our vulnerable children who found the transition back to full time education more difficult.
Cost - £10,094
Community Involvement
In order to maintain high levels of quality feedback between school and parents, we established an online system for virtual parent conferences as Covid-19 restrictions affected face-to-face meetings. This liaison was essential to ensure parents were fully involved with the catch up interventions we had in place, particularly for those children who had struggled with remote learning.
Cost - £500
Additional Resources
We purchased an additional scheme to compliment the teaching of reading across school using high quality texts. This has helped to re-engage reluctant readers and continued to develop a language rich environment where children can experience a range of texts and genres.
Cost - £1,402 (proportion of total cost)
Assessment of the effect on Educational Attainment
All children are assessed by teaching staff within class by utilising high quality teaching practice and ensuring continuous informal assessment drives the planning of our curriculum. By using a range of standardised assessment (NFER, SATS, HAST, Salford reading) we have been able to chart the progress of our most vulnerable children and those requiring more individualised catch up work and adapt our intervention offer as needed. We have used both these assessment methods to complete in depth transition during the Summer term 2021 and ensure any remaining gaps in children’s learning continue to be addressed.
We used a RAG rating (red, amber, green) during the Autumn term and then embedded this into our assessment routines to identify specific SEMH needs or learning behaviours. Those children assessed as Amber or Red received additional support from adults to access catch up interventions. We also used Boxall Profiling with our upper Key Stage 2 cohorts to plan our PHSE teaching and additional interventions for the Autumn term 2021, ensuring children are ready for new challenges and preparation for secondary school.
Accountability
WHITEGROVE PRIMARY SCHOOL
School Governors are kept informed of all decisions regarding funding and the impact on teaching and learning through a number of sub-committees of the main Governing Body, including Quantitative Impact Group and Quality, Curriculum and Ethos Committee. Governors were able to meet regularly, either face to face or virtually, to discuss the impact of the strategies put in place and funded by the catch up premium. In school, senior leaders were able to continue both formal and informal observations and staff members involved in providing catch up interventions, as outlined above, reported delivery and impact as and when necessary.
School-Led Tutoring Grant (2021-22)
Whitegrove Primary School has also received an allocation from the School-Led Tutoring Grant for the academic year 2021-22. This funding is for a number of specifically identified pupils who would benefit from additional individualised teaching in order to close gaps in core subject areas as a result of missed education.
We received a total payment of £1,822.50 for the 2021-22 academic year.
We have used this funding to allow an experienced member of staff one afternoon a week specifically to support children through an individualised programme of 1:1 tutoring. This intervention will be assessed regularly to ensure the children make expected progress and we can offer this tuition to an increasing number of children.