Catch Up Premium

COVID 19 Catch Up Funding Statement

A £1 billion fund for education was announced by the government in June 2020 https://www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium

The catch-up premium funding is based on a per pupil basis at £80 per pupil Reception to Year 6. Funding is based on the previous year’s census and it is anticipated Earlsfield will receive approximately £24000 across the course of the year. Schools have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances.

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 primary aims for “catch up” at Earlsfield:

Attainment outcomes at end of 2020-21 for all year groups will be at least in line with those at the end of 2018-2019.
The mental health needs of pupils are met and supported by the school

To meet these aims this money will be used in order to provide:

Resourced catch groups led by teachers and teaching assistants in closing the gap.
Curriculum resources and materials that support “catch up” and mental health of pupils.
Further up skilling of support staff to develop the outcomes of children who have been identified as needing “catch up” in their learning.

What will this look like at Earlsfield

Focus on consolidation of basic skills that enable successful access to the curriculum. These will include: handwriting, spelling of high frequency words, basic sentence punctuation, times tables recall, basic addition & subtraction fact recall and reading skills relevant to age

Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes that encourage consolidation and repetition to ensure that gaps in in knowledge and learning are closed as quickly as possible.
Additional lesson time on core teaching. The timetable will be adapted to facilitate this whilst ensuring that there is still breadth to the curriculum.
Particular focus on early reading and phonics. This is a key focus at Earlsfield and will remain so.
Assessment of learning and of basic skills to identify gaps in knowledge and learning. Teachers will work to identify gaps in learning and adapt teaching accordingly through low-key assessments.
Time spent on mental health, wellbeing and social skills development. This will take into account the fact that children will have not been in formal school setting for a number of months.

We acknowledge that some children will require:

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 practice 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 Earlsfield will not include :

A narrowed curriculum
Pressurising children and families into rapid learning
Teacher's time spent highlighting missing objectives
Teacher's time spending time undertaking additional assessments