COVID-19 Catch-Up Funding
In June, a £1 billion fund for education was announced by the Government. Further guidance has now been released 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 is based on the previous year’s census meaning Lydford Primary School will be in receipt of £2,080. The spending of this money is 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 Lydford 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 Lydford Primary School (For all children)
- Time spent on PSHE learning, mental health, wellbeing and social skills development. This will be at the centre of all catch up initiatives as many children have not been in a formal school setting for a number of months during lockdown.
- Consolidation of core 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)
- Provision of effective learning schemes. For example, Babcock and the Literacy Curriculum sequences are adapted to focus on missed objectives and consolidate the key facts and concepts, whilst providing rich and varied texts that link to our curriculum aims. In Maths, we use White Rose Hub small steps to progression alongside the DFE Ready to Progress criteria and the nonstatutory maths guidance for pre-requisite knowledge.
- 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 key skills to identify gaps. Teachers are working to identify gaps in learning and adapt teaching accordingly.
Additional Catch-Up at Lydford Primary School (For some children)
- Some children will require more support than their peers to catch up. In addition to the strategies above, children are benefitting from the following: Additional support focusing on core skills. This is supported by additional provision at the beginning or end of the school day utilising catch up premium, identified through baseline and ongoing assessment.
- Additional time to practise core skills. This is supported within the school day with flexibility on timetables to allow this.
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