In June, a £1 billion fund for education was announced by the government. Further guidance has now been released (https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium) 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 will be based on the previous year’s census, meaning we are predicting Fairway Primary School will be in receipt of £16,720. The spending of this money will be down to 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 Fairway Primary School:
- The mental health needs of pupils are met and supported by the school.
- 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.
At Fairway Primary School, this money will be used in order to provide:
- Resources and materials that support “catch up” of pupils.
- Additional support to develop the outcomes of children who have been identified as needing “catch up” in their learning.
Catch Up at Fairway Primary School is:
- Working through well sequenced, purposeful planned learning. For example, our school-created plans are being adapted to focus on missed objectives and consolidate the basics.
- 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, basic sentence punctuation, times tables recall, basic addition & subtraction fact recall and reading skills relevant to age.
- Additional lesson time on core teaching. Reading, writing and maths teaching will require increased teaching time in order to cover missed learning – particularly in the autumn term.
- 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.
- 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.
Catch up at Fairway Primary School IS NOT:
- Cramming missed learning
- Pressuring children and families into rapid learning
- Teacher time spent highlighting missed objectives
- Teacher time spent ticking off assessment points and extra tracking