COVID

Following the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent closure of schools, the government issued an amount of catch-up funding to all schools to support with closing gaps in learning. The amount of funding allocated is based on pupil numbers and is paid over two financial years. 

 

At St Christopher's CE School we have considered the age of our children when deciding how to allocate and spend our money. We have also used the government recommended, 'COVID-19 Support Guide for Schools' published by the Education Endowment Foundation (EEF) to identify the best strategies, based on long term research, that will enable us to achieve the most positive outcomes.

 

Catch up at St Christopher's CE School 

(For all children)

• 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.
• 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.
• Particular focus on early reading and phonics. 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.

 (For some children)

• Additional support and focus on basic core skills. Supported by additional staffing utilising catch up premium – dependent on need as identified through ongoing assessment.
• Additional time to practice 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.