Covid Catch up Funding

Covid catch up funding 2022 2023

In 2022 2023, the Government have provided two key funding streams to schools. This additional funding is linked to teh percentage of pupils in receipt of free school meals in October 2021

To date, Bretherton Endowed has been informed that we will receive the minimum of £2000 towards National Tutoring funding and £457 for in school tutoring funding. Using teacher assessments of our children’s attainment in summer 2022 and the Education Endowment Funding publications, which highlight which school interventions make the greatest impact on reducing children’s gaps in learning our Pupil Premium and Covid recovery plan was written.

Our current catch up policy can be found below:

Pupil Premium and Catch up program at Bretherton Endowed CE Primary School

Info for parents 2022 2023

Following the lockdowns in 2020 and 2021, the children of Bretherton Endowed 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. Despite staff and parents working hard to provide a full curriculum and sequenced learning, some children will have found this challenging and many children have gaps in their knowledge. For last year and this, the Government have paid schools ‘Catch up’ funding in order to bridge those gaps.

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.

How will spending decisions about interventions be made?

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. 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 that are proven to have a positive impact on closing gaps.

Leaders will be held accountable by the governing body for how money is being used to achieve the goal of ‘catch-up’. Class teachers will instrumental in identifying pupils based on their assessments and ongoing work and participation in lessons. Lesson plans will evaluate learning and identify gaps; assessment will be used regularly to assess progress against targets.

Last year, schools were guided to spend the money on tutoring through the National Tutoring Programme and Bretherton received the minimum of £2000. This was spent on tutoring of our existing staff working additional hours. This year 2022 2023, we will again receive the minimum of £2000 and will be looking to use existing staff who know our children well and who are well trained to provide specific educational support.

Plans for 2022 2023

At Bretherton in 2022 2023, this money will be used for:

• Purchase curriculum resources and materials that support pupils to get “back on track”. Thus, raising the attainment of all pupils to close the gap created by COVID-19 School closures
• Pay for additional staff hours to release teachers or skilled teaching assistants to work with groups or smaller group class sizes.

The broad aims for “catch up” at Bretherton in 2022 2023 is:

• To keep children ‘on track’ with their planned progress by the end of the year based on their pre covid attainment in English reading, writing and maths.
• By the end of the 2022-2023, attainment outcomes for all year groups will be at least in line with those at the end of the 2019-20 year with the ambition that all children will be working at age related expectation. Where this doesn’t happen, a clear progression is mapped and intervention delivered.
• To work through a well sequenced, purposeful school curriculum which is ambitious in ensuring all children achieve a broad, balanced and sequential curriculum ( EEF)
• The mental health needs of pupils that have arisen as a result of the pandemic and thereafter are met and supported by the school.

The potential barriers to learning we identified were?

• Gaps in learning through Covid not yet caught up
• Some children lacking in confidence and self esteem
• Younger children missing developmental milestones and key learning behaviours
• Friendships and relationships may have been lost, changed or need repair
• Opportunities may have been limited in all areas of child’s life, even after return to school due to Covid 19 restrictions, lack of visitors, mixing and trips, absences and staff absence.
• The freedom of our children may have been lost. They may have stopped being children and this may have affected their mental health
• Children’s attendance may suffer due to illness through low immune systems and other illnesses as well as Covid
• Children may have had very different home learning experiences in every year group and this may have continued even in 2021 2022 through parents pressures of work and other covid restrictions or absences.

In summary, catch up at Bretherton 2022 2023 will be :

(For all children- quality teaching for all)

• To focus on fluency and comprehension in reading.
• Some 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.
• A continued focus on early reading and phonics and to use our new phonics scheme for interventions for any child identified in KS2 not meeting age related expectations.
• Teachers will work to identify gaps in learning and adapt teaching accordingly through assessment for learning within lessons and in maths, end of topic assessments.
• Training for staff on use of technology , adaptive teaching and retrieval practice to support pupil’s retaining of learning and progress.
• Time spent on mental health, wellbeing and social skills development. This will include confident me programme in Year 6 and the Archbishop challenge in class 2 and 4.
• To revisit Learning Behaviours in order to re-teach the children how to learn. We will support them with this. In particular independence and collaborative and group work.
• Additional hours for existing staff to support children in core lessons and increased TA provision in classes. In particular class 2 will receive additional teaching support for maths and writing.

(For some children- Targeted support)

• Additional support and focus on basic core skills. Supported by additional staffing utilising catch up premium where needed – dependent on need as identified through ongoing assessment.
• Additional time to practise 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
• The continued use of White Rose Maths mastery approach and in KS2 Learning By Questions to offer a more personalised maths learning
• The use of tutors, from our current staff through additional hours for small group intervention as detailed in EEF document.

Catch up at Bretherton is not:

• Cramming missed learning
• Usual adaptive teaching that staff offer
• Increased workload for staff
• Continual assessments without a measure of impact
• Reason for children to work outside the classroom where impact isn’t measured.

Evaluation of 2021 2022

Covid Catch up provision for 2021 2022

In 2021 2022, the Government have provided two key funding steams to schools. This additional funding was linked to the percentage of pupils in receipt of Free school meals in October 2020.

To date, Bretherton Endowed has been informed that we will receive the minimum of £2000 towards National Tutoring funding and £1454 for in school tutoring funding. Using teacher assessments of our children’s attainment in summer 2021 and the Education Endowment Funding publications, which highlight which school interventions make the greatest impact on reducing children’s gaps in learning our Pupil Premium and Covid recovery plan was written. A copy of this can be found on our website : http://www.brethertonschool.org.uk/serve_file/4260067

The catch-up programme will link closely to the school improvement plans and Pupil Premium Strategy.

In summary, catch up at Bretherton was:

(For all children- Quality teaching for all)

• 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.
• Some 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.
• A continued 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.
• To revisit Learning Behaviours in order to re-teach the children how to learn. We will support them with this
• Additional hours for existing staff to support children in core lessons and increased TA provision in classes.

(For some children- Targeted support)

• Additional support and focus on basic core skills. Supported by additional staffing utilising catch up premium where needed – dependent on need as identified through ongoing assessment.
• Additional time to practise 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
• The continued use of White Rose Maths mastery approach and in KS2 Learning By Questions to offer a more personalised maths learning
• The use of tutors, from our current staff and to plan to pay the top up fee to access the subsidised national tutoring programme for disadvantaged pupils and others who are identified as needing “catch up” in their learning. Thus, reducing the gap between them and their peers.

Catch up at Bretherton is not:

• Cramming missed learning
• Pressuring children and families into rapid learning
• Teacher’s time spent highlighting missed objectives or missing key curriculum subjects or coverage designed to limit opportunities or areas of learning.
• Teacher’s time spent ticking off assessment points and extra tracking

Some specific areas 2021.

During November and December 2021, Class 2  received additional TA support for 3 mornings a week to receive specific targeted supported within the school day focusing on a range of different skills and knowledge.

Class 3 received additional small group support in Maths from a qualified teacher.

Class 4 received additional small group support in writing from a qualified teacher.

Class 1,2,3 received additional teaching assistant support daily for 1 to 1 and small groups reading, comprehension and phonics.

Interventions records will be kept and each child below expectations will have a detailed provision map in place. These sessions are recorded on our provision map and baseline and competed assessments are used to measure the effectiveness and impact of the provision. These are planned for and evaluated by the school leadership team and SENDCO.

Our planned Targeted Group Support (tutoring) in Spring 2022

This is an area where we are investing the school’s catch up grant as we strongly believe it will have the most impact. We selected children at most risk of falling behind to partake in small group targeted intervention which began in January 2022. This will follow a period of time during Autumn 2 which will see specific training for these targeted interventions. These sessions were run two qualified teachers. 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 teacher undertaking the role liaised with class teacher and SLT and presented impact to HT and Chair of Governors on a termly basis. At Bretherton this is being planned for maths and writing skills. Miss Hymers and Mrs Glew will be employed for additional hours to teach these sessions.

Who will benefit from the funding?

Based on assessments in Summer 2021 and Autumn 2021, 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. The Government have required schools to ensure that the funding this school year be used to reduce any gaps for disadvantaged children (children in receipt of Free school meals) as priority, however, at Bretherton, we plan to support as many children possible. Parents of identified children will receive a letter outlining the purpose and coverage of the intervention sessions so that home and school can work together to reduce gaps in learning. Teachers may identify gaps for children to work on at home where interventions in class may not be considered necessary. These interventions will not put any child at an advantage in relation to their peers, but seek to ensure that they are working at age related expectations with their peers.

How long did the interventions last?

The tutoring interventions will be in groups of 3 pupils from the same class for the same learning and will last for approximately an hour a week for 15 weeks. If more appropriate, the sessions may be planned for more sessions each week over a shorter number of weeks.  Some groups outside of the tutoring will be in groups of 6.

How will we make sure that all our strategies are implemented well?

• Early and ongoing assessment of all children in all year groups. We will do this in various ways both formally and informally. We have updated our assessment policy to represent this
• All strategies will be researched, led and monitored by members of the SLT working with subject leaders
• Pupil Progress Meetings and observations of learning
• Our Governing Body will monitor the impact of the spending and support/challenge the school to ensure the best outcomes for all
• Use of internal recording systems to ensure all concerns (including emotional needs) about children are logged and responded to so they are in a better place to learn
• Regular updates for parents in relation to their child’s progress and open door policy for home school discussions.

Covid Catch up provision for 2021 2022

In 2021 2022, the Government have provided two key funding steams to schools. This additional funding was linked to the percentage of pupils in receipt of Free school meals in October 2020.

To date, Bretherton Endowed has been informed that we will receive the minimum of £2000 towards National Tutoring funding and £1454 for in school tutoring funding. Using teacher assessments of our children’s attainment in summer 2021 and the Education Endowment Funding publications, which highlight which school interventions make the greatest impact on reducing children’s gaps in learning our Pupil Premium and Covid recovery plan was written. A copy of this can be found on our website : http://www.brethertonschool.org.uk/serve_file/4260067

The catch-up programme will link closely to the school improvement plans and Pupil Premium Strategy.

In summary, catch up at Bretherton is:

(For all children- Quality teaching for all)

• 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.
• Some 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.
• A continued 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.
• To revisit Learning Behaviours in order to re-teach the children how to learn. We will support them with this
• Additional hours for existing staff to support children in core lessons and increased TA provision in classes.

(For some children- Targeted support)

• Additional support and focus on basic core skills. Supported by additional staffing utilising catch up premium where needed – dependent on need as identified through ongoing assessment.
• Additional time to practise 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
• The continued use of White Rose Maths mastery approach and in KS2 Learning By Questions to offer a more personalised maths learning
• The use of tutors, from our current staff and to plan to pay the top up fee to access the subsidised national tutoring programme for disadvantaged pupils and others who are identified as needing “catch up” in their learning. Thus, reducing the gap between them and their peers.

The summary letter to parents is attached and the individual letter to parents. The overview plan starting January 2022 will be added later in the term and the impact will be evaluated. 

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2020 2021

The government announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up lost time after school closure. This is especially important for the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds. This funding 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
• a £350 million National Tutoring Programme to provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people who need the most help, which includes:
  • a schools programme for 5 to 16-year-olds – for more information, see the National Tutoring Programme FAQs
  • a 16 to 19 tuition fund
  • an oral language intervention programme for reception-aged children

Our allocation for 2020 2021 school year is £8400. 

The DFE and EEF ( Education Endowment Fund) state ‘Every school will have been affected by Covid-19 differently and school leaders are best placed to understand the needs of their school communities. The right way to support pupils will differ between schools and must be informed by the professional judgement of teachers and school leaders.’ We have created a catch up funding document here for your information. This is an organic document which will be reviewed regularly and changed according to the needs of our children and community although it will remain true to the principle that we will seek to reduce the lasting impact of Covid -19 on the education and experiences of our children. 

School has created this plan after consultation with parents, staff and children and ongoing identification of needs. School has committed to more ‘catch up’ funding than has been allocated in the areas of most need. We have used the best value guides available through the EEF https://educationendowmentfoundation.org.uk/

in order to maximise the potential outcomes for our children.

Supporting all children is a priority both academically and socially on their return to school after the National Lockdown earlier this year. In addition, being able to ensure that should any such events happen again, school, staff, children and families are in a strong position to be able to continue the education of our children is key.

As a small school, we know our children well and our staff are well skilled at assessing children and knowing where each individual child is currently and what is needed to support good progress.

If you have any questions relating to the use of the Covid Catch Up funding or the national tutoring service, please do not hesitate to contact school. 

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