Catch Up Premium

From June 2020, a £1 billion fund for education was announced by the government. This continues to be allocated on a yearly basis and will be based on our pupil premium numbers. 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.

Spending:

At Brimrod Primary, this money will be used in order to:

• Purchase curriculum resources and materials that support pupils to get “back on track”. These include the Sandwell Maths and the extension of the WellComm assessment scheme into KS2.
• Fund additional support staff to develop the outcomes of children who have been identified as needing “catch up” in their learning.
• Purchase additional online homework packages to improve the remote online learning offer.
• Purchase Mindfulness programmes for use with the staff and children

Aims:

The broad aims for “catch up” at Brimrod Primary School:

• Pupils make accelerated progress in key areas from their starting points at the beginning of the autumn term 2023.
• Reading and Maths skills are much improved and accelerated progress to be demonstrated on a term by term basis from Autumn 2023 to Summer 2024.
• Social skills are developed and are much improved by the end of the Summer term 2024.
• The mental health needs of pupils that have arisen as a result of the pandemic are met and supported by the school. Staff are better informed and have greater clarity about how to support children with mental health needs.
• All pupils are able to focus on their learning during lessons and concentration levels show a marked improvement over 2023/2024.
• There is an overall increase in children’s resilience and self-confidence by the end of summer term 2024.
• There must be a strong remote learning offer in place. Online homework platforms must continue to be used weekly in order to develop children’s ability to access work online.

Barriers:

• Some pupils may have limited concentration due to lack of structured learning experiences during lockdown.
• Some pupils may struggle in social situations due to the lack of interactions during lockdown. Many will need to be taught these skills again.
• Some pupils may have had limited access to reading materials and online devices during the lockdown and therefore, attainment may be lower than expected. 

Catch Up at Brimrod Primary School

For all children:

• Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes. For example, our Read2Write writing schemes are being adapted to focus on missed objectives and consolidate the basics. In maths, we will utilise the White Rose Hub as our spine of learning and will access adapted plans that have been purpose written for catch up.
• 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. In order to keep a broad and balanced curriculum, some subject areas may be taught as blocked days rather than weekly lessons.
• 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. We have purchased a new validated phonics scheme, 'Ready, Steady, Phonics', to be used from September 2022 with Children and EYFS/Year 1 and also with older children with specific gaps in learning.
• 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 our work as many children continue to need support in these areas.

 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 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.