Birk Hill Infant and Nursery School

Catch-Up Premium Plan   

Summary Information

Birk Hill Infant and Nursery School

Academic Year 2020 – 2021

Number of Children 101

Total Catch-Up Premium £8,080

Guidance

Children across the country have experinced unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of Covid-19. Those children from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds are amongst the hardest hit. The impact of lost learning time is substantial, and the scale of our response must match the scale of the challenge.

Schools’ allocations are based on the number of children from reception onwards, providing each mainstream school with a total of £80 per child.

As the Catch-Up Premium has been designed to mitigate the effects of the unique disruption caused by Covid-19, the grant will only be available for the 2020 – 2021 academic year. It will not be added to future school budget allocations.

Use of Funds

Schools should use thiis funding for specific activities to support their children to catch up for the lost teaching over the previous months, in line with the guidance on curriculum expectations for the next academic year.

Schools have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their cohort and circumstances.

To support schools make the best use of the funding the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a Covid-19 support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up for all children. Schools should use this document to help them direct their additional funding in the mostt effective way.

Education Endowment Recommendations

Teaching and whole school strategies

*Supporting great teaching

*Pupil assessment and feedback

*Transition support

Targeted approaches

*Individual and small group tution

*Intervention programmes

*Extended school times

Wider strategies

*Supporting parents and carers

*Access to technology

*Summer support

Identified impact of lockdown and school closure

Reading – Clear gaps in reading were identified in September 2020, particularly gaps in children’s understanding of reading comprehension. Children were less fluent in their reading and the gap between those children that read during lockdown and those children who did not access reading materials has widened.

Writing – Children have lost essential practising of various fine motor and writing skills, specific knowledge has not been covered or embedded, this has led to a lack of fluency in writing – handwriting, spelling and structure. For some children poor letter formation / handwriting has been identified. Those children who maintained writing during lockdown were less affected, however those children who did not have access to regular writing opportunities have needed to work additionally hard on writing stamina.

Maths – Specific learning content has been missed, leading to gaps in learning and stalled sequencing of knowledge. Children still have an appetite for mathematics and lockdown has not affected their attitudes, however there are clear gaps in learning identified through baseline assessments.

Other subjects – There are some significant gaps in knowledge – whole units of work have been missed meaning that the children are less able to access pre-requisite knowledge when learning something new and they are less likely to make connections between concepts and themes throughout the curriculum. Children have also missed valuable curriculum experiences like school outings, visitors and exciting, powerful curriculum learning moments.

Planned Expenditure

These are grouped into the categories outlined in the Education Endowment Foundation’s Covid-19 Support Guide for Schools.

1.Teaching and Whole School Strategies

2.Targeted Approaches

3.Wider Strategies