Covid Catch Up
Children and young people across the country have experienced unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19). Those from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds will be among those hardest hit. The aggregate impact of lost time in education will be substantial, and the scale of our response must match the scale of the challenge. Schools’ allocations will be calculated on a per pupil basis, providing each mainstream school with a total of £80 for each pupil in years reception through to 11. As the catch-up premium has been designed to mitigate the effects of the unique disruption caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), the grant will only be available for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. It will not be added to schools’ baselines in calculating future years’ funding allocations.
Covid Catch Up
Children and young people across the country have experienced unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19). Those from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds will be among those hardest hit. The aggregate impact of lost time in education will be substantial, and the scale of our response must match the scale of the challenge. Schools’ allocations will be calculated on a per pupil basis, providing each mainstream school with a total of £80 for each pupil in years reception through to 11. As the catch-up premium has been designed to mitigate the effects of the unique disruption caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), the grant will only be available for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. It will not be added to schools’ baselines in calculating future years’ funding allocations.
Use of Funds |
EEF Recommendations |
|---|---|
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Schools should use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils to catch up for lost teaching over the previous months, in line with the guidance on curriculum expectations for the next academic year. Schools have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances. To support schools to make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a coronavirus (COVID-19) support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students. Schools should use this document to help them direct their additional funding in the most effective way. |
The EEF advises the following: Teaching and whole school strategies
Targeted approaches
Wider strategies
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Infant School
Identified impact of lockdown |
|
|---|---|
| Maths | Although specific content has been missed, leading to gaps in learning and stalled sequencing of journeys maths has not been impacted to the same extent as writing. Children still have an appetite for maths and lockdown has not affected their attitudes however they quite simply, have large gaps in learning. Recall of basic skills has suffered – children are not able to recall addition facts, times tables and have forgotten once taught calculation strategies. |
| Writing | Although children haven’t necessarily missed ‘units’ of learning in the same way as subjects such as maths they have lost essential practising of writing skills and is therefore the subject impacted most by the pandemic. In the infant school basic skills such as hand writing and phonics have noticeably deteriorated leading to a lack of fluency in writing. Those who have maintained writing throughout lockdown are less affected, however those who evidently didn’t write much have had to work additionally hard on writing stamina and improving their motivation due to the lack of fluency in their ability to write. |
| Reading | Children accessed reading during lockdown more than any other subject. This is something that was more accessible for families and required less teacher input. However, the development of their phonic knowledge has been impacted resulting in some children falling significantly behind with the bottom 20% of readers disproportionately affected. |
| Non-core | There are now significant gaps in knowledge – whole units of work have not been taught meaning that children are less able to access pre-requisite knowledge when learning something new and they are less likely to make connections between concepts and themes throughout the curriculum. Children have also missed out on the curriculum experiences e.g. trips, visitors and powerful curriculum moments. |
Planned expenditure – The headings below are grouped into the categories outlined in the Education Endowment Foundation’s coronavirus support guide for schools)
Teaching and whole-school strategies (Infant School) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desired outcome | Chosen approach and anticipated cost | Impact (once reviewed) | Staff lead | Review date? |
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Supporting Great Teaching: Greater emphasis has been placed on supporting children’s physical and emotional development. Teachers using a variety of strategies to ensure that gaps in knowledge are identified and addressed before moving on. |
Regular circle time and daily physical activities were prioritised in addition to weekly PSHE and PE lessons. Lead practitioner to coach teachers through joint planning and delivery of lessons. Review strategies and schemes used for teaching of reading, writing and maths to engage and address gaps in learning. (£1000)
|
Children feel safe and secure demonstrated by excellent behaviour. Teaching and learning across the school is judged to be outstanding. Learning in books shows good progress. Teachers report greater confidence in using assessments to identify and address gaps. End of year assessments for each year groups show that children are making progress and gaps are being addressed. |
MC / WF / HM
TB |
Feb 21 July 21 due to Spring closures |
| Total budgeted cost | £1000 | |||
Targeted approaches (Infant School) |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
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1-to-1 and small group tuition Identified children will have significantly increased rates of reading fluency and phonological awareness. They will be able to comprehend reading better as a result of being able to read at pace without spending their working memory decoding. They will be confident readers and dips in reading attainment will be negated. |
HLTA deployed to support Y2 children in autumn 2020 costing £3000 HLTA recruited to support lowest attainers in Y1 (spring / summer 2021) costing £10,000
|
82% of chd who sat Year 1 Phonics screening in Dec 2020 passed. Year 2 phonics screening Dec 2021 |
SENco / Phase Leader SENco / Phase Leader |
Aut 2021 Aut 2022 |
| Total Budgeted Cost | £13000 | |||
| Overall Grant expenditure (Infant) | £14000 | |||
Junior School
Identified impact of lockdown |
|
|---|---|
| Maths | Although specific content has been missed, leading to gaps in learning and stalled sequencing of journeys maths has not been impacted to the same extent as writing. Children still have an appetite for maths and lockdown has not affected their attitudes however they quite simply, have large gaps in learning. Recall of basic skills has suffered – children are not able to recall addition facts, times tables and have forgotten once taught calculation strategies. |
| Writing | Although children haven’t necessarily missed ‘units’ of learning in the same way as subjects such as maths they have lost essential practising of writing skills and is therefore the subject impacted most by the pandemic. In the junior school hand writing and specific grammar and punctuation knowledge are noticeable weaknesses, leading to a lack of fluency in writing. Those who have maintained writing throughout lockdown are less affected, however those who evidently didn’t write much have had to work additionally hard on writing stamina and improving their motivation due to the lack of fluency in their ability to write. |
| Reading | Children accessed reading during lockdown more than any other subject. This is something that was more accessible for families and required less teacher input. However, children are less fluent in their reading and the gap between those children that read widely and those children who don’t is now increasingly wide. The bottom 20% of readers have been disproportionately affected. |
| Non-core | There are now significant gaps in knowledge – whole units of work have not been taught meaning that children are less able to access pre-requisite knowledge when learning something new and they are less likely to make connections between concepts and themes throughout the curriculum. Children have also missed out on the curriculum experiences e.g. trips, visitors and powerful curriculum moments. |
Planned expenditure – The headings below are grouped into the categories outlined in the Education Endowment Foundation’s coronavirus support guide for schools)
Teaching and whole-school strategies (Junior School) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desired outcome | Chosen approach and anticipated cost | Impact (once reviewed) | Staff lead | Review date? |
|
Supporting Great Teaching: Greater emphasis has been placed on supporting children’s physical and emotional development. Teachers using a variety of strategies to ensure that gaps in knowledge are identified and addressed before moving on. |
Regular circle time and daily physical activities were prioritised in addition to weekly PSHE and PE lessons. Lead practitioner to coach teachers through joint planning and delivery of lessons. Review strategies and schemes used for teaching of reading, writing and maths to engage and address gaps in learning. (£1000)
|
Children feel safe and secure demonstrated by excellent behaviour. Teaching and learning across the school is judged to be outstanding. Learning in books shows good progress. Teachers report greater confidence in using assessments to identify and address gaps. End of year assessments for each year groups show that children are making progress and gaps are being addressed. |
MC / WF / HM
TB |
Feb 21 July 21 due to Spring closures |
| Total budgeted cost | £1000 | |||
Targeted approaches (Junior School) |
||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
1-to-1 and small group tuition Identified children will have significantly increased rates of reading fluency and phonological awareness. They will be able to comprehend reading better as a result of being able to read at pace without spending their working memory decoding. They will be confident readers and dips in reading attainment will be negated. |
Class teacher who has resigned from full time post has taken up part time post to deliver interventions in the afternoon 3x a week. Interventions to take place during Spring and Summer 2022 Total Cost £12,000
|
Gap between focus children and their peers is eliminated. | Lead Practitioner | Sum 2022 |
| Total Budgeted Cost | £13000 | |||
| Overall Grant expenditure (Junior) | £14000 | |||
| Overall Grant received (Junior) | £17360 | |||
| Rolled Over (This money will be used in 2021/2022 to funded additional catch up provision using school staff to deliver interventions) | £4360 | |||