At Norbridge, we have worked carefully on investigating the impact of lost time in school. We have worked with children and families in considering the impact of the pandemic and we have carefully considered what we needed to do to engage our learners with school again. We wanted to ensure our interventions were not knee-jerk reactions to the missed learning and we have looked carefully at the best way to invest in approaches that will secure long term impact and success for our children.
We have used the talents of staff to re-design our library to make it much more engaging and comfortable for our learners. We did this to ensure the profile of reading is high in school. Our children love the new library area and it has definitely helped the children engage well with the resources.
We have adapted the curriculum, and teachers have shown great flexibility in gaining the necessary skills in delivering online lessons. We use our online platform and our new skills to engage children and their families after the normal school day. We held a recent virtual blogging event that meant we could extend our teaching into the evening and engagement with families was high. We know this approach will enable us to extend learning time with our children over the coming years.
Although we have used some of our catch-up funding to facilitate pupil progress and engagement, we have prioritised further budget planning to purchase resources and programmes that will accelerate pupil progress and make up for lost learning.
The following outlines where we are working carefully to ensure the children are ready for their next phase of learning as quickly as possible:
Summary Information | |||
Total number of pupils: | 423 | Amount of catch-up premium per pupil: | £80 |
Total catch-up premium budget: | £33840.00 |
The actions that will be taken | The person / people responsible for the action | The cost of the actions taken | We will know we have been successful when… |
As many of our younger children in EYFS and Year 1 have missed many phonics sessions we identified phonics as a key area to work on. We have allocated a leading teacher and provided training for staff to carry out targeted interventions. | GH / CBMrs Woodward is leading on our phonics catch-up across school. | £500 | Our phonics scores and engagement with assessment of Read, Write Inc will provide evidence of success or areas of further work for intervention. |
Invest in Read, Write Inc for EYFS and KS1 and Accelerated reader for KS2. We recognise this work requires a whole school structured approach and we want to ensure we work across school with a clear focus on language development and structured teaching. | GH / CB / KW / IHG | £8000 | We will see children engaging and progressing well in a structured, whole school context. Evidence will show engagement and a love of learning. |
We are using our radio station to promote language development for all children. This will develop good oracy and ensure children understand clarity, diction and how radio can be an excellent way of communication. | SM / RJ | £200 | Children will be able to prepare broadcasting material with confidence and they will be able to communicate through the medium of radio with clarity. |
To aid catch-up in reading we are targeting children with Switch On Reading. This will run for ten weeks and the focus will be on closing the gap for vulnerable children working below age related expectations. | BL and AS – these staff will share their training with other staff. | £127 per pupil | Vulnerable children will show improvement in their reading ability and skill, and more staff will be available to intervene. |
Toe by Toe used to intervene with children who find reading difficult. This will target children who are significantly behind due to dyslexia. | DS and AS monitored by KW (SENCO) | £125 | Structured support provided for children with dyslexia that will show progress for the group. Assessment over short and longer term. |
Precision Teaching will be used to give children regular practice to aid the retention of facts and to embed new skills. This will particularly help children that struggle with specific words. This will be done through repetitive but engaging activities. | RJ / GH / CB to monitor with KW | 1:1 support @ an average of £16 p/h | We will see the children grow in confidence in overcoming words/texts that they have previously found challenging. |
SNIP Literacy Programme used to increase reading understanding and knowledge through targeting high frequency words. This is developed at word level and helps improve phonic knowledge. | Delivered one to one, monitored by KW (SENCO) | 1:1 support @ an average of £16 p/h (3 to 4 sessions per week) | Help close the gaps for those children that have missed phonics sessions due to the pandemic. |
NELI early language development is being delivered to groups in our EYFS to develop early language acquisition. | KW | Free intervention project – EEF | This work will see our children learning how to communicate effectively. We will know we have been successful when we see children demonstrating their skills in speaking to each other. |
Maths interventions -Plus 1 is used as a one to one intervention. The focus is building on prior knowledge of number and builds skill in developing mental calculations. The clear language and repetition will benefit dyslexic learners and children with dyscalculia. EAL pupils benefit from this intervention. | TA or teacher delivers during sessions by withdrawing children from groups. Monitored by RJ | 1:1 support @ an average of £16 p/h (3 to 4 sessions per week) | Maths lead monitors progress of children to ensure progress and intervention is effective and appropriate. |
Power of Two teaches mental strategies that are needed in the maths curriculum. Repetitious in nature this helps pupils who struggle with the maths curriculum. Post pandemic this will help children catch up and gain more confidence. | RJ | 1:1 support @ an average of £16 p/h (3 to 4 sessions per week) | Pupil progress meetings will show the impact of interventions for these children. |
White Rose Maths scheme have produced videos to support catch-up for one to one teaching and small groups. | RJ – staff training with scheme | £139 per annum | Pupils will catch up on the missed curriculum to ensure knowledge and skills can be built upon in the correct sequence. |
Children in Year 1 to Year 6 access same day intervention. These interventions are highly personalised in order to accelerate progress. The focus is upon key concepts to secure children’s understanding. Misconceptions are targeted in second wave intervention for children who are close to working at age related expectations. | All staff | Pupil progress meetings and teacher assessments demonstrate that children are making progress and this is shown in the work in interventions. | |
All children have the opportunity to attend extra teaching sessions before and after normal school hours. At Norbridge we have done this for over ten years and we recognise our staff are skilled in using these sessions to intervene and guide children through areas where they may be struggling. Post pandemic these sessions will also provide an opportunity for children to gain knowledge they may have missed during the disruption to school. The children will share their new knowledge on the Knowledge Box blog with their peers and this will help them catch up on the curriculum they missed. | Teacher Led – An average of £37 p/hTeaching Assistant Led – An average of £16 p/h | The outcomes of these sessions will need to be monitored over every year group. Over time we will see children catch up on learning they have missed. The critical success for this work is that the children will be gaining new knowledge for the curriculum and they will also be connecting to a real love of learning. | |
Cultural capital is also an area of learning we will be working on. We are bringing the skills and knowledge that our Year 6 would have gained on the trip to Kingswood to our school site. We will be: camping, map reading, and taking part in archery, shooting, assault course, den building, survival skills and orienteering. We will also have a climbing wall. It has been critical for us to change the way we work and think to ensure our children have a rich experience that they learn from. | £50 per pupil contribution £3000 | Parents and children will give feedback that will help us determine whether we have been successful in this work. We will use our learning from this to feed into the work we do with other year groups on residentials or visits. | |
To develop reading across the whole school, we have invested time and resources to renovate and replenish our school library. | GH / CB / IHG | £6656 | Pupils will develop a love of reading and enjoy reading for pleasure. The level of engagement will be reflected through our Marvellous Me app, where families will share the reading pupils have engaged with at home. |