Supporting great teaching

£39 324 on the staffing elements

£6 705 on Perspex to enable students to access specialist lessons in computing, photography, design etc.

High quality teaching and learning is the key to a successful catch-up programme. 

We used the INSET days in September and October to plan the catch-up curriculum to ensure rapid progress.  Part-time staff were paid to work those days to ensure all staff were clear on expectations and ideas were widely shared.

Additional support in terms of non-contact periods and additional time with mentors was given to two Newly Qualified Teachers whose training was disrupted in 2020.

Spending has been used to ensure that students could return to specialist teaching in subjects such as Product Design, Science and Computing as quickly as possible.  This includes the cost of safety equipment and other physical resources.

Some subjects have benefited from the purchase of technology such as visualisers which has ensured learning could continue both in school and while students are learning at home. 

Our Reading Strategy has also been supported through the catch-up funding.

Student Assessment and Feedback

£3 878 on assessment materials

Spending has also been directed to supporting effective feedback and assessment. 

All Year 7 students completed Cognitive Ability Tests in the first term.  This has given us a useful baseline for a year group that did not complete the Key Stage 2 tests in 2020. 

Some funding was directed to new tests to better identify students with a specific learning need.

We have also used the funding to meet the additional costs of the external exams given the COVID restrictions.  This was the case with the Autumn resits in Autumn 2020 and the BTEC examinations in January 2021.

Transition Support

Not paid for from the COVID catch-up fund

We were keen to ensure a smooth transition for Year 7 who were unable to engage in the normal transition programmes in school.  This would enable them to make more rapid progress when they joined us.

Funding provided support for the new Year 7 students who joined in September 2020.  This included the packs for PP students which were created this year and the funding of the induction day activities in September.

One to one and small group tuition

£2730 for the NTP

Additional spend is covered in the staffing spend above

One to one and small group tuition is an important component of the support available.

We have engaged with the National Tutoring Programme (NTP). 

Year 11 students are receiving tuition in the third half term in groups of 6 for Maths, Biology, Chemistry and Physics. 

In the Summer term we will have Year 10 English, Year 9 Maths and Year 9 English, again in groups of 6.

We also invested in additional staffing in Term 1 to support small group catch up, one to one intervention and provision of work for students who were self-isolating that term.  Some of this provision has continued into the second term. 

Intervention

Within the staffing costs above

Additional staffing supported intervention for students in subjects such as Science in term 1. 

There has also been additional staffing for welfare support as we recognised that some students would need additional support as they returned to school.  

Access to Technology

£37,759.07

We have invested in technology to ensure that teaching and learning can continue even if individual students, teachers or whole cohorts are unable to come in to school.  This has included the purchase of laptops, webcams, headsets and speakers.

16 to 19 Tuition Fund

£2 797

See below.