COVID 19 CATCH UP PREMIUM
Following the National Covid 19 lockdown (which began on March 28th 2020) the children, families and staff of Newtown Primary School had to adapt as learners and rely on home schooling, remote support from class teachers. This interruption to school life inevitably resulted in children developing gaps in their knowledge, understanding and skills, and progress from previous assessments had slowed and in some cases regressed.
At Newtown Primary School, we have constructed a ‘catch-up’ plan to ensure children catch up on any lost learning time and potential in knowledge, skills and understanding. This plan focuses on quality first teaching, classroom intervention and small group and 1:1 targeted support.
The health and well-being of pupils and staff is always at the heart of Newtown's work, but never more so than during this period of Covid 19 and the anxiety, uncertainty and tragedy which affect every member of the school's community. See below for details of our Covid 19 Recovery Plan and Golden Recovery curriculum.
What is the ‘catch-up’ premium funding?
The government announced £1 billion of funding to support children and young people to catch up. This includes a one-off universal £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for lost teaching time. Schools should use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils to catch up for lost learning during the national lockdown and have the flexibility to spend their funding in the best way for their children and circumstances.
Newtown Primary School has been allocated £10,560 ‘catch-up’ funding to support interventions designed to close gaps in attainment for this academic year.
Who will benefit from the funding?
During September 2020, all children across the school were assessed in class for reading, writing, phonics / spelling and maths. Through careful analysis of this assessment data, teachers have identified groups of children that will benefit from ‘catch-up’ support or other interventions to enable them to close gaps in understanding and attainment.