COVID Catch-Up Fund Report
The original COVID catch-up fund was allocated at the start of the academic year. A plan was provided and approved by governors. While we sought to stick to the original plan where appropriate, national lockdowns and other major disruptions have led to us re-thinking some priorities. The table below provides a breakdown of the original plan for how the funding would be spent, and details of how this money was used or re-allocated over the course of the 2020-21 academic year.
Original Action |
Original Intended Outcome |
Budget allocated |
In-Year Summary |
Impact |
Feedback
|
CPD run for staff once a week and coaches trained to help support whole school CPD. Feedback and questioning form an integral part of this. This will enable staff to more successfully identify gaps in knowledge, skills and understanding due to Covid related absences and to address those. |
£4000
|
CPD continued to run all year, much of this remotely. The emphasis shifted to Rosenshine’s principles of instruction of which feedback is a major part. During time in school, cover was provided to facilitate observations. |
Staff can talk with confidence about Rosenshine’s Principles and how these are demonstrated in their lessons. Formative assessment is a regular part of our work. Staff can identify gaps in learning and students know more and can do more. |
Provide quality training for Early Career Teachers, particularly NQTs |
ECTs make rapid progress in their teaching and successfully pass their induction year as we were concerned about the ability of ECTs to have a thorough induction year
|
£5000
|
NQTs followed the NQT programme over the course of the year. |
NQTs have passed or are on track to successfully pass their induction year. |
Provide revision guides for all students
|
All students have access to quality revision guides which can supplement their learning during regular school, and supplement teaching in case of closure |
£36,000
|
Revision guides played a key role in providing students with meaningful work during the times they have been forced to work at home. They also provided support to Year 11 and 13 students over the March-May TAGs period. |
Students used the revision guides as part of their revision in Year 11. A parent survey showed that 76% of parents found the revision guides to be a useful resource during the disrupted academic year, and 78% said they would be used again for future years. Of those surveyed, 60% had used the guides for 3-5 hours, with 20% using them for 11 hours or more. |
Subject specific online and offline resources |
Subjects are able to offer targeted digital support where effectiveness can be demonstrated |
£6,000
|
This money was allocated to departments based on demand. Effective digital support includes Educake in science, LanguageNut in MFL and the McGraw Hill literacy curriculum for literacy classes in Years 7 and 8. |
Online resources were a key resource during the remote learning period. For example, Educake was used regularly across science lessons across multiple year groups and the McGraw Hill literacy curriculum for literacy classes in Years 7 and 8, which would allow us to more efficiently target the need for literacy catch up for our weakest readers even with the impact of Covid on staff and student in-school attendance. |
One-2-one tuition provided for students who are furthest behind in Year 11 |
Tutoring will be provided to students whose need is perceived as greatest. Factors include pupil premium status and assessment performance.
|
£25000
|
This money was re-allocated to provide additional teaching capacity in English and Mathematics. Some teachers worked with smaller groups of students, particularly those on the borderline for a passing grade. |
Borderline students were identified and the BOLT programme was put in place in half term 6. Due to the Academy closure, the impact of this couldn't be measured. A similar programme will be launched in the 2021 Autumn term. The longer term impact of the additional teaching capacity will be evaluated after the Year 11 rehearsals in October 2021. |
Academic mentors
|
Students gain confidence in mathematics and science through the targeted support of academic mentors.
|
£5,000
|
This money was also re-allocated to provide additional teaching capacity in English and Mathematics. |
See above |
Easter revision sessions
|
Students are provided with additional, well-planned revision at a key time before their examinations. Students who struggle to revise independently will particularly benefit.
|
£4,000
|
The Easter revision sessions were reduced in scope to focus upon the open bucket subject areas. Some of the money was reallocated to train two members of staff in access arrangement testing and to provide mental health training for staff and students, which was necessary in the light of the absence of other staff due to Covid. Money was also used to help support the breakfast clubs that ran in the Autumn term, which were even more necessary due to the financial impact of Covid on many of our families. |
Students requiring access arrangements were identified and provided full support during the TAGs process. All teaching staff members have received mental health training alongside a number of support staff. Around 50 students accessed breakfast in school each day. Progress for the open bucket subjects was 0.3 for the 2021 TAGs (using 2019 progress calculations). |
Intervention incentives for period 7
|
Attendance at period 7 starts and remains above 80%.
|
£2,000
|
Due to COVID restrictions, the period 7 interventions were removed. We felt the need to go the extra mile to create positive incentives and a positive atmosphere to promote mental wellbeing during this time. This has spread the benefit to all year groups. |
Rewards programme launched across school and through social media. Students making the right decisions on a daily basis are being recognised for their efforts. The atmosphere in school was positive despite the impact of the pandemic. |
Increase parental engagement |
Parents are kept informed of the work of the school and notified of both positive and negative progress of students. Parents see the school as a partner in their child’s education.
|
£2000
|
To allow for parents’ evenings we invested in a product called SchoolCloud. This allowed parents’ evenings and the options evening to go ahead as scheduled. We have also invested considerable time and resources into setting up MCAS for parents. This has greatly improved communication, as highlighted by parents in the recent March 2021 Ofsted inspection. |
Six parents’ evenings and one options evening took place online. Attendance has increased over time to around 60% for the most recent parents’ evening. We will be consulting with staff and parents to see if this approach to parents' evenings would also be beneficial for future academic years. |
In summary, the majority of the funding was allocated as planned. Where this hasn’t been appropriate or possible, we allocated it in ways that we believed were to the benefit of students and in line with the guidance as to how the funding should be used. Due to significant disruption in the final half term, some of the impact evaluations will be delayed until reliable data are available.
Plans are currently being drawn up for the use of the 2021-22 catch-up funding.