School:

The Gateway Primary Academy

Academic Year: 2020 - 2021

Total Catch funding:

£16,800

Number of Pupils

210

Context

The Gateway Primary Academy is located close to Dartford town centre; the level of disadvantage in our school is lower than the national average- presently 12% children are in receipt of pupil premium funding. We strive to ensure that the individual needs of our pupils are met, including those of our most vulnerable pupils. We ensure that appropriate provision is made for pupils who belong to vulnerable groups, ensuring that the needs of such pupils are adequately assessed and addressed. All our work through the Catch Up Premium Strategy will be aimed at accelerating progress and overcoming barriers, in order to address any regression in learning. The vast majority of our pupils engaged at some level with the home learning provided over the summer term. This involved work being set by teachers and uploaded daily to Google Classroom. Children downloaded the work and uploaded photos and completed work ready for feedback from the class teacher. This medium was used to communicate daily with children and parents.

When the school re-opened to the rest of the children in June we were able to offer a place to all children (45%) who wanted to return to school in addition to the vulnerable and key worker children already in school.

Guidance                             

Children and young people across the country have experienced unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19). Those from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds will be amongst those hardest hit. The aggregate impact of lost time in education will be substantial, and the scale of our response must match the scale of the challenge. Schools’ allocations will be calculated on a per pupil basis, providing each mainstream school with a total of £80 for each pupil in years reception through to 11. As the catch-up premium has been designed to mitigate the effects of the unique disruption caused by coronavirus (COVID-19), the grant will only be available for the 2020 to 2021 academic year. It will not be added to schools’ baselines in calculating future years’ funding allocations.

Use of Funds

EEF Recommendations

Schools should use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils to catch up for 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 to make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) has published a coronavirus (COVID-19) support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students. Schools should use this document to help them direct their additional funding in the most effective way

The EEF advises the following:

Teaching and whole school strategies

• Supporting great teaching
• Pupil assessment and feedback
• Transition support

Targeted approaches

• One to one and small group tuition
• Intervention programmes
• Extended school time

Wider strategies

• Supporting parent and carers
• Access to technology
• Summer support

Identified impact of lockdown

Reading

A range of reading material was accessed during lockdown but this was not consistent across all groups of children. For example some early readers / SEN and EAL families found reading more problematic during lockdown and the children need to be taught a range of strategies to be able to access more complex text. Children in KS1 engaged well in home reading but due to missed book band assessments moved up into the next year group on a lower book band than in previous year’s so will need one to one focussed reading (targeted comprehension and fluency focussed) to accelerate their progress in reading to close the gap.

Writing

The children have written in a range of genres throughout lockdown and in a range of subjects. The children have missed writing at length using all the conventions that would be discussed in class prior to writing and missed teacher modelling. The over use of the computer has resulted in some children needing further support with their handwriting and basic letter formation. The children received regular feedback on their writing throughout lock down via Google Classroom but some children would benefit from additional focussed one to one writing conferencing to address grammar and punctuation errors in their text, especially pupils with EAL.

The teaching of phonics and spelling has been identified as an area of development especially for those Key Stage 1 children who joined Year 1 with limited experience of the phonics teaching from the end of Reception. The long term plan for phonics has been reviewed to address gaps in children’s learning with an additional focus on recapping and revisiting phase 3 at the start of Year 1. As in previous years, regular assessments have been planned for throughout the year in year 1 to identify any children who require additional intervention.

Phonics

Phase 3 and 4 phonics was taught via home learning for Swans and phonics assessments showed for some children they need targeted interventions to close the gaps in their phonics learning. Phase 5 (alternative spellings) was taught via home learning for children in Herons and for some children they will need additional phonics work to revisit this learning.

Maths

Specific content has been missed, leading to gaps in skills and knowledge relating to specific topic areas. In some cases the core skills have been reinforced through home learning using a combination of online applications or packs provided by the teacher. The skills of reasoning and explanation need further development as well as the fluency of concepts needs reinforcement in some cases.

Foundation subjects

There are now significant gaps in knowledge and skills – whole units of work have not been taught meaning that children are less able to access pre-requisite knowledge when learning something new. The skills of using ‘first hand’ resources in the classroom, such as: artefacts to learn from and exploring materials for a specific purpose have all been missed and children will find making the connections between topics / themes more challenging. Children have also missed out on the curriculum experiences e.g. trips, visitors and powerful curriculum moments. The children have also missed out on the opportunity to work collaboratively with others and take part in TASC activities and apply their topic learning to problem solving. This approach will need to be revisited with children throughout 2020 – 2021.

Building Learning Power

Children have missed a significant amount of time in school and it will be important to revisit the skills of ‘being a good learner’ to rebuild resilience, independence (as some children will have been used to working one to one with a parent), reflectiveness, resourcefulness and reciprocity. This will be promoted through weekly class based assemblies and the use of the BLP board in class. Key vocabulary will be used by all classroom adults and BLP will be revisited during whole staff training.

Well-being

Some children returning from lock down (depending on the impact of Covid on their family) will need additional well-being support. Some children may benefit from additional small group support at lunch time while they settle back into school. Well-being assemblies will be used to develop coping strategies with the children alongside their work in Jigsaw.

1. Teaching and whole-school strategies: Professional development, recruitment and retention, support for early career teacher

Expenditure: £400

Desired outcomes

Action

Staff lead

Expenditure

Impact

Staff to receive CPD to enable them to implement strategies to assist children who are displaying difficulties in catching up with their learning.  

A CPD program created for Staff to attend training on dyslexia, speech and language and early reading.

JC, KG

£400

A member of staff can provide well-being support for the children.

Staff have a designated Mental Health First Aider who can offer emotional support to pupils.

Well-being assemblies are organised and SEMH materials are circulated amongst staff.

Staff identify who can attend personalised sessions with a counsellor.

JC, KG

£500

2. Target approaches: Structured interventions, small group tuition, 1:1 support

Expenditure: £7385

Desired outcomes

Action

Staff lead

Expenditure

Impact

Targeted children are on track to reach age related expectations by the end of the year.

Targeted children have additional opportunities to read with adults and subsequently make accelerated progress.

Majority of Year 1 children reach the expected standard in the phonics screening in June and are ready to move onto the Year 2 spelling curriculum. Majority of children in Year 2 reach the expected standard in phonics by Christmas screening. Children required to re-sit pass during the June resits.

Year 4 and 5 children gain a good understanding of the core calculation strategies and can confidently apply them.

Children are regularly reading again and being exposed to a range of authors and texts.

Review PPM notes, engagement records, class data and September teacher assessments to identify key children for support.

Organise weekly small group and 1:1 tuition for targeted children during school and twilight sessions.  

JC, CW, KG

£5200 (Additional school hours)

£2185 (Twilight hours)

3. Wider Strategies: Behaviour approaches, recommendation made in “Safe, Happy, Settle” 

Expenditure: £9000

Desired outcome

Action

Staff lead

Expenditure

Impact

Children make rapid progress in targeted areas of learning. (e.g.timetables, spelling)

Children will have greater opportunities to access online learning.

Activities can be monitored more easily by the class teacher and programs of study can be allocated remotely.

Children can work independently on tasks in school and at home.

To purchase 5 tablets for Year 1 to 6 to support online learning and personalised learning approaches.

Identify groups of children who can work independently on personalised learning tasks.

JC, CH, LL

£6700

All children feel confident and happy coming to school.

Children have a quiet area to go to at lunchtime to play and socialise.

Children have regular access to trusted adults and a mental health first aider.   

Staff and children are organised on a rota basis for attending the lunchtime club.

Children are identified who will benefit some additional social skills work and need a quiet space.

KG, AV

£900

All books and resources that were not returned after the first lockdown have been replaced and children have access to a full range of reading books and manipulatives.

Class teachers and subject leaders to create a list of books and resources that need replacing.

JC, CW

£900