What is the COVID-19 Catch-Up Premium?
The COVID-19 Catch-Up Premium funding is additional funding from the Department for Education to support children and young people to catch up on missed learning caused by coronavirus (COVID-19). This is especially important for the most vulnerable students and students from disadvantaged backgrounds who we know have been most affected. Mainstream schools will get £80 for each pupil from reception to year 11 inclusive.
This funding includes:
- a one-off universal £650 million catch-up premium for the 2020 to 2021 academic year to ensure that schools have the support they need to help all pupils make up for missed learning
- a £350 million National Tutoring Programme to provide additional, targeted support for those children and young people who need the most help, which includes:
- a schools programme for 5 to 16-year-olds – for more information, see the National Tutoring Programme FAQs
- a 16 to 19 tuition fund
Schools should use this funding for specific activities to support their pupils’ education recovery in line with the curriculum expectations in the actions for schools during the coronavirus outbreak guidance.
Click here to read our 2020-21 catch-up plan.
While schools can use their funding in a way that suits their cohort and circumstances, they are expected to use this funding for specific activities which will help pupils catch up on missed learning. Schools should particularly focus on disadvantaged and vulnerable pupils as we know they have been most affected.
Our aim is to utilise the Government ‘catch up’ funds to effectively target those students who will benefit most from engagement with a ‘catch up’ curriculum. At Leek High School, we have initially targeted our support within the English and Mathematics curriculum, employing additional teaching staff to facilitate small group intervention.
In order to support students in their return to school from September, the national Catch-Up Premium has been implemented to address the unprecedented disruption to learning and reduce the impact of lost time across the curriculum. Leek High School will receive around £24,000 as part of the formula funding.
What is the 16-19 tuition fund?
The 16-19 tuition fund is one off funding for the 2020/21 academic year that is ring fenced for Sixth Form colleges to support students and mitigate disruption to learning arising from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The funding is being used to provide small group tuition for 16-19-year olds where their learning has been disrupted and they have a GCSE Maths and / or English grade of 4 or below. Although targeted students are identified based on their prior attainment in English and Maths, the funding can be used to support students in their learning across a variety of subjects.
Examples of disruption that these students have face / will face include assessments being deferred due to lockdown or self-isolation, falling behind in their learning due to long / multiple periods of self-isolation and not being able to complete external examinations due to positive COVID-19 cases.
How will Leek High School (Leek Sixth Form) use this funding?
We intend to utilise the funding to provide additional support to small groups of students (3-5) that have not yet achieved a grade 5 in maths or English. Priority for tuition will be afforded to the most disadvantaged students based on their socio-economic background, SEND status and volume of disruption to their learning through COVID-19.
We will use the funding, as follows:
- Purchase bespoke resources for students targeted in the tuition catch up and use these to support their learning
- Run additional small group classes for these students during the school day and as Twilight sessions
This statement is in line with the Government guidance and we have published this statement to demonstrate how this additional funding will be utilised in the academic year 2020/21.This document may be updated to reflect any changes in ESFA guidance.