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 BRIDGERULE PRIMARY SCHOOL will be in receipt of £4980. 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 children.

At BRIDGERULE PRIMARY SCHOOL, this money will be used in order to provide:

• Additional teaching and support to develop and improve the outcomes of children who have been identified as needing “catch up” in their learning using baseline data and contextual information.

Catch Up at BRIDGERULE PRIMARY SCHOOL (For all children)

• Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes. For example, Babcock and the Literacy Curriculum sequences are being adapted to focus on missed objectives and consolidate the basics whilst providing rich and varied texts that link to our curriculum aims. In maths, we will use White Rose Hub small steps to progression alongside the DFE Ready to Progress criteria.
• Focus on consolidation of basic skills. The core skills which enable successful learning will require increased focus during curriculum time across all year groups. These include: phonics, handwriting, spelling of high frequency words, basic sentence punctuation, times tables recall and KIRFs (Known Instant Recall Facts)
• 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 PSHE learning, 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.