Covid-19 ‘Catch up’ Funding

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 and will not include Nursery numbers, meaning Arnold Mill will be in receipt of approximately £21,600 (270 children x £80). We have currently received £6280 this term and expect to receive a further £6280 during spring term and £8999 during the summer term.  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 Arnold Mill, this money will be used in order to:

• Purchase curriculum resources and materials that support pupils to get “back on track”. These include the PIVATS assessment tools, Classroom Secrets Kids accounts, White Rose Premium resources, SCARF PSHE resources, Power maths books and Read, Write Inc online materials.
• Fund additional support staff to develop the outcomes of children who have been identified as needing “catch up” in their learning.
• Fund staff training to support children’s wellbeing. This includes Nottinghamshire County Council Wellbeing training and Emotional Literacy Support Assistant training. 
• Purchase IT equipment to ensure staff and children can access ‘catch up’ learning programmes.

Aims

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

• Attainment outcomes at end of 2020-21 for all year groups will be at least in line with those at the point of lockdown in March. This means that if a child was working at an age-related expectation in a subject in March they are working at least to an age-related expectation in that same subject by the end of the year.
• By the end of the 2021-22 year, attainment outcomes for all year groups will be at least in line with those at the end of the 2019-20 year.
• The mental health needs of pupils that have arisen as a result of the pandemic are met and supported by the school.

Catch Up at Arnold Mill is

(For all children)

• Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes. For example, our school-created schemes of work are being adapted to focus on missed objectives and consolidate the basics.
• 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. In order to keep a broad and balanced curriculum, some subject areas may be taught as blocked days rather than weekly lessons 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 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 Arnold Mill 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