Catch Up Funding

Background and Evidence: What did our pupils telling us they need?  

Pupils: Evidence gathered from Years 1-6 showed that a range of pupils from all prior attainment groups were in need of catch up. There was no pattern with regards to other groups – EAL, Boys/Girls, Pupil Premium pupils etc.  Evidence gathered from the new Reception cohort told us that their lack of pre-school/nursery had had an impact on their school-readiness. Social and emotional skills and speech and language development had been affected by lockdown.   

Subjects: A range of gaps – maths, reading, writing, phonics. Our home learning offer was thorough, but some families found it hard to engage with the offer as they were working from home or lacked IT hardware. Some found it challenging to help their children with the work.  

Attention/Concentration: One of the most obvious effects of school closure, was the decrease in pupils’ attention spans and their ability to concentrate. Timetables were adapted to offer pupils a rapid succession of shorter tasks and regular breaks. Pupils got tired quickly. Teachers were skilful in managing their timetable to avoid overload for pupils. Attitudes to learning and school were good – pupils were happy to be back and loving their lessons but needed help to build up their learning stamina.

Measuring Impact: Children completed a short quiz, test or sample piece of work before they began their catch-up work. This was repeated at the end of the series of sessions to measure the impact of the teaching. This approach was flexible i.e. if the teacher could see that the child had made rapid progress, a quiz/test can be given sooner than planned and the focus of the catch-up work redefined. Red Kite Learning Trust engaged an external education consultant to review the work and impact of our catch-up programme. There were 2 reviews in the 2020-21 academic year, one in Autumn term and one in Summer.  The school was subject to a remote Ofsted Visit in December about the impact of Covid on the school. During this visit, the catch up provision was shared. 

Coppice Catch Up Plan using the EEF COVID-19 Support Guide for Schools November 2020 to January 2021

Catch Up Funding Spend = £21,600

More detail about 

• The funds have been used to pay for additional staffing to create capacity in school for more small groups and 1-2-1 work.
• The Deputy Head, Mr Cawte, had the role of Strategic Leader for Catch-Up across Years 1-6 for this work.
• He worked with teachers to be diagnostic, spending time with the pupils in lessons, working alongside them, testing and quizzing to delve deeper into where the gaps are and which pupils were most in need of catch up work. 
• The catch up teaching  was flexible depending on the pupils and their needs. For example, working alongside pupils in class, delivering pre- and post- teaching, an intervention or teach pupils in groups or 1-2-1, teaching half the class while the teacher has the other half or taking the whole class while the teacher delivered specialised teaching etc. In this way, we created the capacity to respond to pupils dynamically and flexibly to needs as they changed.  
•  Catch Up work was carefully organised not to affect pupils learning by missing key teaching in lessons.

Catch Up Plan Update January - March 2021 - School Closure Period

The second school closure period meant that the catch up plan as designed needed to be reworked. The additional staffing meant that each class bubble could be opened which facilitated catch up work to continue in class bubbles with keyworker/vulnerable pupils with their own teachers and assistants. Pupils working from home, who were in catch up interventions in the Autumn term, were given targeted 1-2-1 remote learning short sessions with school staff.

Catch Up Plan March 8th - July 2021

• On returning to school, teachers assessed pupils through quizzes and questioning to provide a baseline for teaching. 
• Teachers also used the knowledge they had amassed from remote education and teaching in school during the lockdown to formulate their plans for teaching and Catch Up. 
• Teaching capacity was created for Catch Up teaching to extend beyond the original scope of the plan (up to March 26th) to the end of the Summer term (July 18th). Under the direction and organisation of Mr Cawte (Deputy Head/Catch Up Leader), class teachers continued to deliver their own catch up groups, as had begun in lockdown 2, with their classes covered by an HLTA teaching music, Latin or science under the direction of Mr Cawte.