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/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 Staples Road will be in receipt of £48,720 (609 x £80).  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.  The central goal is getting back on track and teaching a normal curriculum as quickly as possible. 

At Staples Road, this money will be used in order to provide: 

• curriculum resources and materials that support “catch up” and improve the mental health of pupils; 

• additional teaching support to develop the outcomes of all children to catch up for lost teaching over the previous months. 

Catch Up at Staples Road is: 

(For all children) 

• Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes. For example, our school-created writing targets are being used to focus on missed objectives and consolidate the basics. In maths, we will utilise the White Rose Maths as our spine of learning. 

• 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. 

 (For some children) 

• 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 need of children in order to re-establish good progress in the essentials (phonics and reading, increasing vocabulary, writing and mathematics) and there will be flexibility on timetables to allow this. 

Catch up at Staples Road IS NOT: 

• Cramming missed learning 

• Pressuring children and families into rapid learning 

• Teachers’ time spent highlighting missed objectives 

• Teachers’ time spent ticking off assessment points and extra tracking 

Please use the link below to access our Recovery Premium Strategy for 2020/21.