Catch up program (post COVID 19 Lockdown)

Following the lockdown on March 28th due to COVID 19 the children had to adapt as learners and rely on home schooling, remote teacher support and a reduced amount of face to face teaching from their class teacher. This inevitably meant that many children have gaps in their knowledge from the previous year group when they returned in September. 

At Gayton and Middleton Academies, we have constructed a ‘catch-up’ plan to ensure children catch up on any lost learning and potential gaps in knowledge over the next two terms. This plan will focus on quality first teaching, year group ‘gap’ filling, classroom intervention and small group or 1:1 targeted support with the child’s health and well-being at the centre of all we do

 

What is the ‘catch-up’ premium funding?

The government has announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up. This includes a one-off universal £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time. Schools should use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils to catch up for lost teaching over the previous months and have the flexibility to spend  their funding in the best way for their children and circumstances.

Gayton and Middleton have been allocated additional ‘catch-up’ funding to support interventions designed to close gaps in attainment for this academic year.

How will spending decisions about interventions be made?

Since July, leaders in school have been following best practice guidance documents and approaches published by the DfE (Department for Education) and the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to ensure the additional funding is directed in the most effective way (see Appendix 1). Approaches taken by the school will be driven by our detailed knowledge of children’s current attainment and will draw upon approaches that are evidence-based and are proven to have a positive impact on closing gaps.

The catch-up programme will link closely to the school Single Change Plans and Pupil Premium Strategy. Leaders must be able to account for how money is being used to achieve the goal of ‘catch-up’.

Quality First Teaching

The curriculum will be adapted to focus on the key skills and knowledge that children need in order to access the wider curriculum. Teachers will focus on embedding these key facts in the first two terms for all core subjects whilst still teaching a smaller percentage of non-core subjects. All teaching will consider the children’s ability on return from the summer term 2020 and planning will be tailored to their needs. In the Autumn term we will also concentrate on wellbeing. The Autumn Term will see the completion of a range of formal and informal tests to support the teachers planning.  The teaching will be monitored by the SLT each half term to ensure high quality of teaching across the school.

 

 

Classroom intervention

There will be a Teaching Assistants available in each class bubble to support the children at most risk of falling behind or further behind. These children will be planned for by the teacher and then work with the support of the TA in the class to allow for smaller ratios and more targeted intervention. Intervention records will be kept and each child below expectations will have a detailed provision map in place. These interventions will be monitored half termly by the SLT.

Targeted Group Support (tutoring)

This is an area where we are currently investigating and preparing for. We will select children at most risk of falling behind to partake in small group targeted intervention which will begin in Spring 2021. This will follow a period of time which will see specific training for these targeted interventions. These sessions will be run by a qualified teacher and/or teaching assistants. The accountability for the success of these sessions will lie with them and the class teacher in order to have the most impact. The sessions will be fast paced and initially work on lost learning from the prior year group in order to give children the best possible chance of progressing in their current year group. 

The children selected will enter a contract alongside their parents to ensure all stakeholders sign up to the commitment of this additional focused teaching. The teacher undertaking this role will liaise with class teacher and SLT and will present impact to HT and Chair of Governors on a termly basis.

Health, Fitness and Wellbeing

We have planned for all our wrap-around clubs to take place in class bubbles. 

Children thrive on PE days at school and we believe that high quality PE and Wellbeing provision is essential.  Each Bubble has at least 2 or 3 PE sessions each week which is further supplemented by the daily mile or daily circuits.

We are a PATHs Model school and continue to use this scheme to support our children with their mental well-being.

Who will benefit from the funding?

During September 2020, all children across the school have undertaken high-quality assessments in reading, writing, phonics / spelling and maths. Through careful analysis of this assessment data, teachers have identified groups of children that will benefit from ‘catch-up’ support or other interventions to enable them to close gaps in understanding and attainment.

 

 

 

 

 

Strategy aims for Catch Up Funding –