What is the Coronavirus Catch Up Premium?
This fund is designed to support children and young people in the 2020 to 2021 academic year to catch up on any education missed during school closures. Schools can use this funding to help their pupils catch up for lost teaching in line with the guidance on curriculum expectations for this academic year.
Schools have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances. The most effective evidence-based approaches for students to catch up have been outlined in a report published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF). Some of these approaches that can be used remotely include:
- Intervention programmes – Intervention software has been highlighted as an effective way to support those who have fallen behind the furthest particularly in literacy and numeracy. Both IDL Literacy and IDL Numeracy are cloud-based intervention programmes designed to help these learners both remotely and in the classroom. IDL Literacy is a computer-based multi-sensory system which supports learners with dyslexia and other learning difficulties to increase their reading and spelling ages. IDL Numeracy is mapped to the KS1 and KS2 National Curriculum and is presented as a series of maths puzzles reducing any anxiety associated with maths and aiding progress. Each lesson is made up of one or more of the main mathematical principles helping you to identify any areas a pupil may be struggling with. Both programmes are designed to support independent learning and can be accessed remotely online.
- One-to-one and small group tuition – Research has shown that this is an effective catch up and remote learning strategy. For it to be most effective creating a three-way relationship between tutor teacher and pupils is essential ensuring that tuition is guided by the school linked to the curriculum and focused on the areas where pupils would most benefit from additional support. IDL Literacy and IDL Numeracy allow you to review your learners’ abilities and identify any areas of strength or weakness. This enables you to tailor your future one-to-one or small group lessons to focus on these areas aiding progression at home.
- Pupil assessment and feedback – Assessments can help teachers to identify how to best support their pupils. Every pupil will have been affected differently by Covid-19 and assessment allows you to support pupils by providing feedback and tailoring future lessons. Using the IDL software teachers can schedule tests remotely check pupil progress and identify any areas of weakness. Additionally our new free Dyscalculia Screener can be used from home and is designed to help you assess pupils’ maths ability and identify any areas they require extra assistance in order to improve.
- Access to technology – A lack of technology and information on how to use it for distance learning created a barrier during the last lockdown. As a result the Covid-19 Catch Up Premium can be used to invest in new technology or provide information to pupils and their families on using it effectively. At IDL we provide all our customers with free demonstrations and user guides and have created new guides for parents who are supporting learners with IDL remotely.
How will the use of the Premium be monitored?
As with all government funding school leaders must be able to account for how this money is being used to support pupils in getting back on track and ensuring the curriculum has a positive impact on all students.rn
During Ofsted visits inspectors will discuss how the school is bringing pupils back into full-time education and the quality of education to allow learners to catch up. This will include how the catch up funding has been utilised and the impact it has had on the learners’ education. IDL makes this simple for teachers as they can login and see all their pupils’ progress through easy-to-view graphs and charts which can be printed off and used as evidence.
We hope you have found this article helpful and we are here to support you with distance teaching and learning. If you would like a free trial of IDL Literacy and/or IDL Numeracy please click here. If you would like to discuss any of our products or would like to request our free Dyscalculia Screener to use with your pupils remotely please click here to contact us.
Click here to see our top tips for ensuring your pupils continue to make progress remotely.