At Burley Woodhead Primary we have 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.
The government has allocated approximately £80 per pupil to support catch-up initiatives following the reopening of schools. Below provides information of where this money will be targeted and the intended impact.
COVID recovery premium funding - £500
Funding: £16,240
Context:
All children returned to school in June 2020, following a period of remote learning from 23rd March. Remote learning was paper based for R,Y1 and Y2, with parents downloading information from the school website and watching daily phonics videos produced by class teachers. Y3-6 used Google Classroom to deliver remote teaching and, whilst successful, this was very much a “learning as we went situation”. Initial assessments showed that children’s knowledge across the curriculum was still strong but writing stamina and punctuation had dropped. This was reinforced during baseline assessment meetings in the second week in September. A number of children in Y6 were identified as being off-track for their end of KS2 targets, as well as a number of children through school who needed additional support.
Although the school was prepared to support pupils with mental health issues when they returned to school, it became apparent this was not a need during the first half of the Autumn term. Additional support from the school learning mentor is still in place and a referral system to identify pupils needing support is ongoing.
How it is intended that the grant will be spent:
- SENCo non-class based for the Autumn term to support teaching and learning in Y6 and assess pupils through school who need additional support: cost £10,000
- Purchase additional Chromebooks to ensure all pupils can access Google Classroom independently: cost £9,000
- Online reading books: cost £500
- Additional TA time for handwriting interventions: cost £4,000
How the effect of this expenditure on the educational attainment of those pupils at the school will be assessed:
- Pupils meeting end of year targets in English and Maths – assessed during pupil progress meetings, expect 75% of pupils off track to meet targets in English and maths in all year groups
- Pupils able to access online teaching and learning during any periods of isolation or lockdown – expect 100% of pupils to use google classroom to access online teaching and learning.
Progress of SEND pupils tracked on b-squared so close identification of gaps
16th November 2020
