COVID Catch Up

In June, the Government announced a £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up.   Further guidance has now been released and can be viewed at www.gov.uk/guidance/coronavirus-covid-19-catch-up-premium . Schools allocations are calculated on a per pupil basis, providing each mainstream school with a total of £80 for each pupil in Reception through to Year 6.

This means Laceby Stanford Primary Academy will be in receipt of £17,600 (200 x £80) this year to help support our pupils.  Schools have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances. 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 pupils. We have considered this when planning our approach for the use of this funding.

Barrier to getting pupils back on track:

• Loss of learning due to school closure
• Pupil attitudes to learning and resilience and stamina to access learning for longer periods of time
• Changes in behaviour, including anxiety, self-esteem and self confidence
• Pupils not being able to make links to previous learning
• Phonics knowledge and application for pupils in EYFS and KS1
• Foundations of learning in Early Years

At Stanford Junior and Infant School, this money will be used in order to provide:

• Curriculum resources and materials that support “catch up” and mental health of all pupils.
• Additional support staff to develop the outcomes of children who have been identified as needing “catch up” in their learning.

There are two broad aims for “catch up” at Laceby Stanford Primary Academy:

• The mental health needs of pupils are met and supported by the school.
• The inclusive provision of all pupils within school.

Catch Up at Laceby Stanford Primary Academy is

For all children

• Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes. For example, our school-created writing schemes are being adapted to focus on missed objectives and consolidate the basics. In maths, we will utilise the White Rose Maths Scheme as our spine of learning and we have been able to use catch up premium to purchase 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 – 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. We have purchased the Big Cat Collins online E-books to help support reading at home
• Assessment of learning and of basic skills to identify major gaps. Teachers will work to identify gaps in learning and adapt teaching accordingly. We undertook baseline assessments in the first part of the Autumn term for all children to identify gaps in learning.
• 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. A main focus across school on PSHE and SMSC through mindfulness, yoga, nurture sessions, circle time etc. Provide regular opportunities for pupils to express feelings and anxieties and to ask questions

 (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 on-going 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.

Review as necessary