Catch Up Funding: Impact in 2017-18

As a publically funded school Heart of England school receives funding called the literacy and numeracy catch-up premium. This gives schools 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. In 2017/18 we received an additional £12,628 allocated on the same basis as 2016 to 2017, adjusted to reflect the percentage change in the size of the year 7 cohort, based on the October 2017 census.

Where we spent the Year 7 Catch Up Premium (2017-18)

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
Reading age assessments	Reading age assessments completed for all of Year 7 with data used as part of ongoing tracking and monitoring of progress
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 Book Bingo Challenge across Key Stage 3
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
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
Poetry Reading Event	This is a poetry reading and writing competition in association with Balsall Common Writers’ Group
Twilight Literacy	Small group intervention for students led by Year 7 Manager and SENCO
ATLAS – Small Group Intervention	Targeted intervention in small groups developing numeracy and literacy skills
Tutor Time Intervention	KS3 Maths coordinator led small group intervention twice a week for students to develop key skills such as multiplication tables
Times Tables Rockstars Programme	Weekly intervention programme to help students develop and retain key foundation skills with multiplication tables
Meet our SENCO Drop In	Drop in session for parents to meet the SENCO and Year 7 Learning manager to discuss any concerns
Author Talks in the Library	Visiting authors discussed their books and reading habits in several events during the year

Of 25 Year 7 students who participated in the Reading Buddy initiative over the year, there was an average increase in the reading age of 2.8 years.  (Comparison of reading age at the beginning of the year and in July 2018).

As part of our work during 2016-17, we have identified specific areas of focus that we will target for students in the academic year 2018-19 to better enable students to make the best possible progress.  The maths team will continue to use Maths Rockstars but will also expand their work in using this to include mobile app subscriptions and Ipad add-ons.  Those students requiring additional catch up in maths will also be addressing more explicitly aspects of problem solving and reasoning as a feature of their mathematical skills to develop.  For those students who require additional help with reading, we will continue to embed our work in rolling out Thinking Reading and Reading buddies.  Our own analysis has shown that there is an additional gap with comprehension that we need to address so we will invest in resources to better enable us to do this and ensure that students make the best possible progress.

In the data summary below, we show the progress of this group of students by the end of Year 7.  Progress was measured by summative assessment at the end of the academic year, further information on our approach to assessment can be found on the school’s website.

English

	Whole Cohort (49)	No. Boys (24)	No. Girls (25)
Progress	78%	67%	88%
Better Than Expected	18%	17%	20%
Progress Concern	22%	33%	12%

Maths

	Whole Cohort (43)	No. Boys (17)	No. Girls (28)
Progress	73%	82%	86%
Better Than Expected	12%	18%	7%
Progress Concern	16%	18%	14%

Links

• Download a PDF of this information

Year 7 Catch Up Funding 2016-17

As a publically funded school Heart of England school receives funding called the literacy and numeracy catch-up premium. This gives schools 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. In 2016/17 we received an additional £11,895 in Year 7 Catch Up Premium funding; this funding was allocated on the basis of the same overall amount of Year 7 catch-up premium funding in 2015 and 2016, adjusted to reflect the percentage change in the size of the Year 7 cohort between 2015 and 2016.

Where we spent the Year 7 Catch Up Premium (2016/17):

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
Reading age assessments	Reading age assessments completed for all of Year 7 with data used as part of ongoing tracking and monitoring of progress
Introduction of DEAR time	DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) time introduced 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 ’14 texts to read before 14’)
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
Baseline assessment	Baseline assessment to measure skills and knowledge against which to chart progress in Maths and English
Thinking Reading	Staff Training 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
World Book Day	Celebration of World Book day with themed events Poetry Reading Event
Twilight Literacy	Small group intervention for students led by Year 7 Manager and SENCO
ATLAS – Small Group Intervention	Targeted intervention in small groups developing numeracy and literacy skills
Tutor Time Intervention	KS3 Maths coordinator led small group intervention twice a week for students to develop key skills such as multiplication tables
Meet our SENCO Drop In	Drop in session for parents to meet the SENCO and Year 7 Learning manager to discuss any concerns
Author Talks in the Library	Visiting authors discussed their books and reading habits in several events during the year

Impact of Year 7 Catch Up Premium Funding 2016-17

Reading

45 students joined us in 2016-17 below the nationally expected level for reading at Key Stage 2 (this meant they scored below 100).  As a means of measuring impact and student progress we look at reading ages and the progress students make in English over the course of the year.

It is not our Policy to set students targets related to GCSE grades at any point in Key Stage 3, rather our Curriculum is designed to diagnose the gaps in skills and understanding and to remedy these so that they are fully prepared for the rigours of GCSE examinations and beyond.

% Students making progress in English by the end of Year 7	97%
% Students making better than expected progress in English by the end of Year 7	78%

Maths

53 students joined us in 2016-17 below the nationally expected level for maths at Key Stage 2 (this meant a scaled score of less than 100 at the end of KS2).  As a means of measuring impact and student attainment we examine the progress data of our Year 7 students in maths over the course of the year.

It is not our Policy to set students targets related to GCSE grades at any point in Key Stage 3, rather our Curriculum is designed to diagnose the gaps in skills and understanding and see to remedy these so that they are fully prepared for the rigours of GCSE examinations.

% Students making progress in Maths by the end of Year 7	80%
% Students making better than expected progress in Maths by the end of Year 7	6%

Year 7 Catch Up Premium 2017/18

Heart of England School expects to receive £11,500 in Year 7 Catch Up Premium funding for 2017/18.

Download

• Download a PDF copy of this information here…