Last academic year 2021-22 and this academic year 2022-23, we have received extra funding as part of the National Tutoring Programme. We are running 15 week blocks of 1 hour tuition for children who may be pupil premium or require extra support to catch up. The expert tuition is being provided by a long standing Darwen based tutoring company called Progress Education Centre. Their qualified teachers Denise, Jenna and Kat come into school each Monday and Tuesday and work with small groups of three children.
What is a Catch-Up Premium?
The Government announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch-up following the school lockdown in March 2020. This included 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.
Funding has been allocated on a per pupil basis, providing the equivalent of £80 for each pupil in years reception through to 6. Schools have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances.
Catch-Up Support Documentation
In order to support schools with school planning whilst we are in a world pandemic, the Education Endowment Foundation (EFF) has produce two help guidance documents:
- “The EEF guide to supporting school planning – A tiered approach to 2020-21”
- “Covid-19 support guide for schools”
These documents suggest schools plan using a tiered approach with respect to school improvement and also with respect to planning how to support children to catch-up.
“Catch-up” in this context refers to the children learning the main aspects of the curriculum them missed when they were in the first lockdown (March-August 2020.)
This, aforementioned, tiered approach describes 3 tiers and the areas of provision within the tiers which schools they suggest should be focussed on to have the greatest impact this year.
(The text below is from the areas within the “The EEF guide to supporting school planning” and those areas detailed in the “Covid-19 support guide for schools.”)
Tier 1
Teaching (High-quality for all, effective diagnostic assessment, supporting remote learning and focussing on professional development.) Teaching and wholes school strategies (Supporting great teaching, Pupil assessment and feedback and Transition support)
Tier 2
Targeted academic support (high quality one to one and small group tuition, teaching assistants and targeted support, academic tutoring, planning for pupils with SEND.) Targeted approaches (One to one and small group tuition, Intervention programmes and extended school time)
Tier 3
Wider strategies (supporting pupils social, emotional and behavioural needs, planning carefully for adopting SEL (social and emotional learning) curriculum, supporting parents with pupils of different ages and successfully implementation in challenging times) Wider strategies (Supporting parent and carers, access to technology and summer support)
It is suggested that school’s focus should also be split ½ on Tier 1 and a ¼ on Tier 2 and a ¼ on Tier 3.
CATCH-UP PREMIUM for St Barnabas
Our school has been allocated a total of £15,680 for the academic year (2020-21)
The DFE guidance on catch up premium references the two school planning documents so we as a school have decided to use the tiers to support our decision-making with respect to how we spend our catch-up premium. The decisions are also guided by the school’s vision and our determination to ensure all our children close the gaps in their learning and we do not allow this pandemic to adversely affect any of our children’s academic or emotional development.
Please see the following document to see how we plan to use the Catch-Up Premium in 2020-21.
