The government has made available £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. The catch-up premium is funded on a per pupil basis at £80 per pupil and is based on the October 2020 census meaning Dovers Green will be in receipt of £22,720 (284 x £80).
At Dovers Green, this money will be used in order to provide:
- Curriculum resources and materials that support the “catch up” and mental health and wellbeing of children.
- 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 Dovers Green:
- Attainment outcomes at end of 2020-2021 for all year groups will be at least in line with those at the end of 2019-20.
- The mental health and wellbeing needs of pupils are met and supported by the school.
More information about the Catch-up premium can be found here.
Catch-Up at Dovers Green is: (For all children)
- Focus on consolidation of basic skills. The core skills which enable successful learning will require increased curriculum time across all year groups. These include: phonic and reading skills, handwriting, spelling of high frequency words, basic sentence punctuation, basic number work including counting, place value, addition and subtraction.
- Additional lesson time for 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, we will continue to have theme weeks such as a STEM week 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.
- Assessment of learning and of basic skills to identify major gaps. Teachers will continue to use the gap analysis tool on Target Tracker to identify gaps in learning and adapt teaching accordingly.
- Time spent on mental health, wellbeing and social skills development through the Restore Curriculum. 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. (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 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.