COVID-19 Historical Information

COVID-19 Catch up 2020-21

“A learning community’s well-being has a lot to do with the quality of relationships, cohesion, inter-dependence and belonging”

In June, a £1 billion fund for education was announced by the government.  Guidance shows that the money is split between a catch-up premium and a national tutoring scheme.

The catch-up premium is funded on a per pupil basis at £80 per pupil. This will be based on the previous year’s census, meaning LMS will be in receipt of £14, 259.

The spending of this money is down to schools to allocate as they see best. To support schools to make the best use of this funding, the Education Endowment Foundation has published a support guide for schools with evidence-based approaches to catch up for all students.

At LMS, this money will be used in order to:

• Purchase curriculum resources and materials that support pupils to get “back on track”. Thus, raising the attainment of all pupils to close the gap created by COVID-19 School closures
• Pay the top up fee to access the subsidised national tutoring programme for disadvantaged pupils and others who are identified as needing “catch up” in their learning. Thus, reducing the gap between them and their peers.

The broad aims for “catch up” at LMS:

• Attainment outcomes at end of 2020-21 for all year groups will be at least in line with those at the point of lockdown in March. This means that if a child was working at an age-related expectation in a subject in March they are working at least to an age-related expectation in that same subject by the end of the year.
• By the end of the 2021-22-year, attainment outcomes for all year groups will be at least in line with those at the end of the 2019-20 year.
• The mental health needs of pupils that have arisen as a result of the pandemic are met and supported by the school.

What barriers to learning have we identified might come out of our COVID-19 closures?

• A loss of routine and thus a lack of concentration
• A loss of structure and maybe thus a lack of confidence
• Friendships may have been lost, changed or damaged
• Opportunities will have been limited in all areas of child’s life
• The freedom of our children may have been lost. They may have stopped being children and this may have affected their mental health
• Children’s attendance may suffer due to their or their parents fears/concerns
• Children had very different home learning experiences in every year group

Catch Up at LMS is:

(For all children- Quality teaching for all)

• Working through well sequenced, purposeful learning schemes- our Recovery Curriculum
• Focus on consolidation of basic skills. The core skills which enable successful learning will require increased curriculum time across all year groups. These include: handwriting, spelling of high frequency words, basic sentence punctuation, times tables recall, basic addition & subtraction fact recall and reading skills relevant to age.
• Some additional lesson time on 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, some subject areas may be taught as blocked days rather than weekly lessons in the autumn term.
• A continued focus on early reading and phonics (RWInc). 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 work to identify gaps in learning and adapt teaching accordingly
• Time spent on mental health, wellbeing and social skills development. 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. We will use our core text of the “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” to drive this.
• Check-ins by the Learning Mentor/SLT
• Our new LMS Learning Behaviours will re-teach the children how to learn. We will support them with this
• Our newly appointed Assistant Headteacher will support groups and classes to improve teaching and learning across the school.

(For some children- Targeted support) 

• Additional support and focus on basic core skills. Supported by additional staffing utilising catch up premium where needed – 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
• The use of Doodle Maths- online learning- personalised maths learning, anytime anywhere
• The use of tutors, both from our current staff or online specialists  

Catch up at LMS IS NOT:

• Cramming missed learning
• Pressuring children and families into rapid learning
• Teacher’s time spent highlighting missed objectives
• Teacher’s time spent ticking off assessment points and extra tracking

How will we make sure that all our strategies are implemented well?

• Early and ongoing assessment of all children in all year groups. We will do this in various ways both formally and informally. Our key document will be our new Curriculum and assessment book
• All strategies will be researched, led and monitored by members of the SLT who are also Core subject leaders
• Pupil Progress Meetings and observations
• Our Governing Body will monitor the impact of the spending and support/challenge the school to ensure the best outcomes for all
• Use of internal reading systems to ensure all concerns(including emotional needs) about children are logged and responded to so they are in a better place to learn