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2019-20 Year 7 Catch Up Premium

Catch Up Funding: Impact in 2019-20

The literacy and numeracy catch-up premium gives state-funded schools, including special schools and alternative provision settings, additional funding to support year 7 pupils who did not achieve the expected standard in reading or maths at the end of key stage 2 (KS2).

Allocations for 2019-20

In 2019 to 2020, Heart of England school were allocated funds on the basis that we would receive the same overall amount of year 7 catch-up premium funding as in the academic year 2018 to 2019.

Where we spent the Year 7 Catch Up Premium (2019-20)

Activity Commentary
Transition Arrangements
  • Opportunity on transition day for students to experience a Maths or English lesson
  • A Y6 Parent information evening; an opportunity to meet (amongst others) staff from Maths and English
Summer Challenge activities
  • Mathematics challenge booklet created for all new Year 7 students to work on and revise aspects of maths over the summer holiday ready for year 7
  • A reading challenge and competition for students to read as many books over the summer and complete a diary of their reading activities
  • Introduction of a traffic lighted set of texts for Year 6 into Year 7 to help select relevant texts
Transum Maths & Numeracy Ninjas Programme
  • Weekly intervention programme to help students develop and retain key foundation skills with multiplication tables and basic numeracy.
DEAR time
  • DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) continued in regular registration time across all Houses
  • Staff training on the importance of reading and supporting a reading culture
  • Intervention for reluctant readers (suggestions of texts, parental contact, updated website with suggested termly reading lists covering fiction, non-fiction and blogs.
Intervention for reluctant readers
  • Termly suggested books to read
  • Reading logs kept by all Year 7 students and monitored by teachers
Reading Buddies
  • Student mentoring to establish reading buddies. High levels of satisfaction from both mentee and mentor
  • Evidence of impact with subsequent reading age assessments to look for impact and gains made by those participating. Average improvement: 18 months reading age in 9 months
Baseline assessment
  • Baseline assessment to measure skills and knowledge against which to chart progress in Maths and English
Thinking Reading
  • Additional training of staff to further build capacity
  • Purchase of resources including (but not limited to) GL Assessments, LASS testing software, PROBE
  • Development of CORE (Centre of Reading Excellence) room
Parental Information Evenings
  • Parental information evening on supporting child with Maths and English
  • Information evening on MathsWatch, how it works and how it can support a child’s learning and progress in Maths
Small Group Intervention
  • Targeted intervention in small groups developing numeracy and literacy skills

In 2019-20, the number of students joining Heart of England School working below the expected standard in English and maths were:

Students Working Below the Expected Standard (2019-20)
English 49
Maths 38

The forced closure of schools owing to COVID-19 makes fuller reporting of impact difficult. However, literacy and numeracy catch up, intervention and support will feature heavily as part of Heart of England School’s Academic Recovery Plan for all students in 2020-21.