Coronavirus catch-up premium

Rationale

 

In order for schools to make up for lost learning due to the pandemic of 2020, each school in the UK received a stipend of £80 per registered pupil, which meant for Riverside we received £13,280 as it was taken from the last census of the school, when 166 children were registered.

 

We had two goals in using this additional funding:

 

1. Selecting interventions that had proven, measured impact
2. Not taking time out of the rest of the curriculum from the child

 

With this in mind, and using the Education Endowment Foundation's Teaching and Learning Toolkit, we decided to use this money for targeted tutoring of small groups.  The rationale for this decision was based on the following research:

• Extending school time, as the tutor groups would be run from 3pm to 4pm after school, is shown to increase progress by 2 months on average for a child
• Small group tuition, as each group would be no more than 4 children, is shown to increase progress by 4 months on average for a child

 

Therefore, the hope is that children in receipt of these interventions make up 6 months of lost learning.

 

Selection of children

 

We use internal assessments to measure where the children are currently in Mathematics and Reading called PIRA (Progress in Reading Assessment) and PUMA (Progress in Understanding Mathematics Assessments) which can project outcomes for children at the end of Year 6.  Comparing those to what was projected in KS1 gives you us an idea of which children have slipped back, and therefore, who can be targeted with catch-up tuition.

 

Once we completed our Autumn assessments we had targeted 20 children in Year 6 and 20 children across Years 4 and 5 to receive once a week small group tuition after school.

 

How the impact of this investment will be measured

 

As we continue to assess the children across Spring and Summer, it is hoped that those children benefiting from this investment will show an increased progression against their peers.  Each tutor group that we've approached will also provide us with internal moderation to demonstrate impact.