What is Catch-up Funding?
Children and young people across the country experienced unprecedented disruption to their education as a result of coronavirus (COVID-19). Those from the most vulnerable and disadvantaged backgrounds were among those hardest hit.
We know that we have the professional knowledge and expertise in the education system to ensure that all children and young people recover and get back on track. The government announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up. This included a one-off universal £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year, to ensure that schools were given the support they needed to help students make up for lost teaching time. Since then schools have also been fortunate to receive some further funding to support those young people most disadvantaged.
Allocation
School allocations were calculated on a per student basis, providing each mainstream school with a total of £80 for each student in years reception through to 11. Bishop Rawstorne received £76800 for the 2020/21 academic year. The school has also received further grants to support student recovery, for example, by way of the school led tutoring grant.
Utilisation
Schools were asked to use additional funding for specific activities to support their students to catch up lost teaching or learning time, in line with the guidance on curriculum expectations. Schools have had the flexibility to spend their funding in the way that best suits their cohort and circumstances.
At Bishop Rawstorne we have used the initial 'catch up' funding in a variety of different ways, such as:
Period 6 Lessons
Bishop Rawstorne launched an extensive after school programme. Initially, this ran from from April 2021 to July 2021, in the first phase, and then August 2021 to October 2021 in the second phase and November 2021 to December 2021 in the third phase. This programme was run by staff across all areas, in small group sizes, allowing focussed intervention and 1-2-1 tuition in some cases.
Phase 1
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Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
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Y7 |
ENGLISH |
SCIENCE |
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MATHS |
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Y8 |
SCIENCE |
MATHS |
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ENGLISH |
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Y9 |
MATHS |
TAC AND HISTORY |
MUSIC AND DRAMA |
SCIENCES |
ENGLISH |
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Y10 |
MUSIC, TAC AND ART |
MATHS |
SCIENCES |
GERMAN, RE AND DRAMA |
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Phase 2
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Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
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Y9 |
GERMAN |
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RE |
PE |
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Y10 |
HISTORY |
PE |
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GEOGRAPHY AND MUSIC |
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Phase 3
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Monday |
Tuesday |
Wednesday |
Thursday |
Friday |
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Y8 |
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MATHS |
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Y9 |
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MATHS |
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RE |
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Y10 |
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FOOD & RE |
SCIENCES |
ENGLISH |
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Y11 |
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HISTORY & IMEDIA |
PE |
MFL & MUSIC |
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Geography sessions also ran in January and February 2022.
Bishop Rawstorne also co-ordinated transport for those students who required it and catering was provided prior to sessions.
In addition to after school sessions, other subject areas offered, and continue to offer, lunchtime support and 1-1 sessions for those students who are disadvantaged due to missed learning.
We have also worked with University of Lancaster to deliver a bespoke 'catch up' literacy programme to support those year 7 and 8 students whose literacy skills have been impacted on; this programme will run again.
In addition to these initiatives, individual subject areas have been granted additional TA support, or other resources, to support further catch up and subject area requests are always considered by the Senior Leadership Team on a case by case basis.
Options Engagement
Bishop Rawstorne ran 5 weeks of Year 8 TAC taster sessions for students who did not get to properly experience a technology subject due to the carousel rotation being affected by lockdown; this allowed them to get the practical experience needed to then make the relevant options choices.
National Tutoring Programme
Bishop Rawstorne continues to work with the National Tutoring Programme, using the school led tutoring grant, to deliver tutoring to students in mathematics, science and English, either on a 1-1 or small group basis.
Transition
To ensure as seamless a transition process as possible into year 7, additional staffing has been deployed to co-ordinate the KS2/3 transition from our feeder primaries. This will continue and will allow us to identify students that are most in need of support when starting. This programme continues to develop and has included such initiatives as: breakfast club, mentoring programmes and early intervention pathways to support academic progression and mental and physical well-being.
Careers Software
To allow students to have good access to online careers advice the KUDOS platform has been bought into school and used across all year groups with sessions run for parents and students to onboard as many students as possible.
Student Services
Students' emotional needs have increased. Funding is being used to pay for additional counselling support, where needed, to help the emotional development of our young people. As well as this, we are currently putting together resources that can be used by individual students, and also staff, to help manage the emotional pressures they are experiencing.
Sport Provision
Student opportunities to engage in social and physical activities were significantly reduced as a result of lockdown. Therefore, in addition to the PE extra-curricular activities the school already offers, we also engaged with School Sport Partnership coaches to deliver non-competitive multi-sport provision to targeted students. The activities offered focus on enjoyment but also support physical, social and emotional development. In addition, we have widened the activities on offer at the school to include such activities as trampolining and orienteering.
Accountability and Monitoring
As with all government funding, school leaders must be able to account for money is being used to achieve goals set and Bishop Rawstorne has, and will continue to be, transparent in tracking and accounting for any funding.