Stretham Community Primary School
Welcome
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Catch Up Premium
Coronavirus (COVID-19) Catch-Up Premium
Background
On 20th March 2020, schools closed to all children except those of key workers and vulnerable children. Only eligible key worker children attended Stretham Community Primary School until the 1st June when the school opened for priority groups and we were able to additionally welcome more Reception, Year 1 and Year 6 pupils back into the building. Having carefully looked at the school’s capacity and the wishes of the parents, the school was able to open for all who wanted to return for the last few weeks of the summer term, as well as managing an open-air transition meeting where all pupils had the opportunity to spend time with their current teacher and their teacher for September 2020.
Whilst all children during the period of lockdown had access to purpose-made home learning, which continued until the end of the summer term, concern about gaps in learning and the need to 'catch up’ have formed the foundation of school plans for the 2020-21 academic year.
Covid-19 Catch up Premium & national tutoring programme
In June, a £1 billion fund for education was announced by the government. Further guidance has now been released here showing that the money is split between a catch-up premium and a national tutoring scheme.
The catch-up premium is funded on a per pupil basis at £80 per pupil. This is based on our Census data and we anticipate we will receive £12,480 (156 x £80).
The spending of this money is for schools to allocate as they see best. To support schools to make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation has published a support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students.
There are two broad aims for 'catch up’ at Stretham Community Primary School:
- Supporting curriculum recovery post covid 19 lockdown for pupils by identifying gaps in learning, and planning / assessing to make up deficits. (e.g. a child on track to meet year 3 expectations last year will be on track to meet year 4 expectations this year)
- Support pupils’ resilience and good Mental Health
At Stretham ‘catch up’ is characterised by:
- Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes. For example, developing our Powerful Words project across the school. In maths, we utilise a mastery approach with White Rose resources.
- Focus on consolidation of basic skills. The core skills which enable successful learning will require increased curriculum time across all year groups. These include: handwriting, spelling of high frequency words, grammar and punctuation, times tables recall, maths fluency for fact recall and reading/phonics skills relevant to age.
- Additional support and focussed time to practise basic core skills. Some children will be supported by additional staffing via an approved tutoring provider. Paid for by the Catch-up premium, in addition to our class teachers and TAs, tutoring hours will support children disadvantaged in these circumstances by school closure and remote learning.
- Particular focus on early reading and phonics. This is always a focus in the school and will continue to be so in order to develop children's reading ability and vocabulary.
- Assessment of learning and of basic skills to identify major gaps. Teachers will work to identify gaps in learning and adapt teaching accordingly. Teachers will use the results of assessment to focus on key children who need a targeted intervention delivered by class teachers, teaching assistants or tutors.
- Time spent on mental health, wellbeing and social skills development. This will be at the core of all catch up work as many children will have not been in formal school setting for a number of months.
The plan is an evolving one.
We intend to spend the first half of the Autumn term welcoming children back to school and settling them into the routines and expectations of school life, both socially and academically.
The second half of the Autumn term will be characterised by in-class support, using our teachers and teaching assistants to offer pre-learning, over-learning and support groups.
As we move into the Spring term we will be looking at additional support for some pupils using the national tutoring programme and the catch-up funding.