Covid-19 Catch Up
In June, a £1 billion fund for education was announced by the government. Further guidance has now been released:
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/catch-up-premium-coronavirus-covid-19
The catch-up premium is funded on a per pupil basis at £80 per pupil. This will be based on the previous year’s census and will not include Nursery. It is up to schools to allocate this money as they see best.
At Belmont this money will be used in order to provide:
- Curriculum resources and materials that support ‘catch up’ and mental well being of pupils
- Staff to develop the outcomes of children who have been identified as needing ‘catch up’ in their learning
There are two broad aims for ‘catch up’
- Attainment outcomes at end of 2020-21 for all year groups will be at least in line with those at the end of 2019-20.
- The mental health needs of children are met and supported by the school.
We will use targeted and meaningful assessments and analysis of all children’s attainment and progress to ensure any gaps in learning are addressed through:
Well sequenced, purposeful learning: for example, reading and writing/maths lessons will be adapted to focus on missed objectives and consolidate the basics.
- Focus on mastery of basic skills: the core skills which enable successful learning will require increased curriculum time across all year groups to include handwriting, spelling of high frequency words, punctuation, times tables recall, basic addition & subtraction fact recall and reading skills relevant to age.
- Focus on early reading and phonics: We have purchased new reading books to support children where necessary.
- Assessment of learning and of basic skills to identify gaps: our current approach to assessment is robust and means that we have a range of methods for effectively assessing children and identifying any gaps in learning.
Where assessment shows individuals have not caught up these children will continue to receive targeted interventions throughout the summer term.
- Time spent on mental health, wellbeing and social skills development: this will be part of our catch up work. We are using the Jigsaw PSHE scheme which includes lessons on a positive transition back to school.
- Additional support and focus on basic core skills: supported by additional staffing utilising catch up premium – dependent on need as identified through ongoing assessment.
- Additional time to practise basic skills: This again will be dependent on needs of children in order to re-establish good progress in the essentials (phonics and reading, increasing vocabulary, writing and mathematics) and there will be some additional staffing to allow this.
The impact of the use of this funding will be closely monitored through:
- Teachers’ on-going assessments, marking and tracking of children’s attainment and progress
- Regular Pupil Progress meetings
Termly assessment reports to Governors at the Curriculum & Achievement committee