Our school received the coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium grant in academic year 2020 to 2021, and this money has been used for the following;
How it is intended that the grant will be spent
Our school will receive a total of £15,040 (based on £80 per pupil x 188 pupils at school during the last census). As a school we have decided that paying out for individual tutors would be extremely costly and provide low impact for high cost. In autumn 2020 we have received a payment of £3,760 (25% of our allocation), and the remainder will come in 2 more installments to make a total of our allocation £15,040.
We have a team of skilled HLTA and TAs and have appointed additional staff to deliver catch-up interventions and support around school. This intervention started from Monday November 2nd 2020 and will be in place for 1 whole academic year. From September 2021 we will continue to focus on driving progress through the use of Quality First Teaching from skilled teachers and support staff.
How the effect of this expenditure on the educational attainment of those pupils at the school will be assessed?
In looking through the guidance provided by the EEF (Education Endowment Foundation), there is extensive evidence supporting the impact of high-quality one to one and small group tuition as a catch-up strategy. Through creating a three-way relationship between our catch up manager, teacher and pupils has been essential, as it has ensured that tuition is guided by the school, linked to the curriculum and focused on the areas where our pupils would most benefit from additional practice or feedback.
By setting aside time to enable teachers to assess pupils’ wellbeing and learning needs will make it easier for teachers and other school staff to provide effective support. Subject-specific assessments have been used to identify particular areas where pupils have forgotten or misunderstood key concepts, to ensure that new material being covered builds on secure foundations. Standardised assessments in literacy or numeracy have also been used to identify pupils who would benefit from this additional catch-up support.
The work of our catch up intervention will be overseen firstly by the class teachers and secondly by the school leadership team and governors to ensure that the impact can be seen as possible throughout the whole school.
Through our pupil progress meetings, life without levels assessments and teacher assessments, we will be able to monitor the progress of each child and the impact that this work has made.