What is the Year 7 Catch Up Premium?

The Year 7 Catch-Up Premium is additional funding given to schools in England to support Year 7 learners who achieved significantly below the expected standard at the end of Key Stage 2 in either Mathematics, Reading or both. The ‘Expected Standard’ is a scaled score of 100 on these tests (raw marks will vary from year to year). It is the expectation that this funding is used to support the improvement of the learners’ reading and maths in Year 7, thus narrowing the attainment gap between these learners and their peers. Unlike Pupil Premium, the Catch-Up Premium is only awarded to learners in Y7.

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How much Year 7 Catch Up Premium does school receive?

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Table 1: Breakdown of Year 7 Catch-Up Premium

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How does school use the Year 7 Catch Up Premium?

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The school implements an Applied Learning Pathway in Year 7, which includes four additional literacy lessons and two additional Maths lessons in comparison to the rest of the year group. The Year 7 Applied Learning group is always very small, not exceeding 15 learners. These additional literacy and numeracy lessons are delivered by specialist Literacy and Numeracy teachers, supported by Teaching Assistants. The provision is partially funded by the Year 7 Catch-Up Premium.

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Improving Literacy

The Literacy lessons support learners to develop their basic reading skills and accelerate their progress in reading. The Literacy teacher improves reading skills through developing active reading strategies, incorporating repetition and over-learning within multisensory teaching, delivering small group guided reading sessions and using software such as the Nessy programme.

 

Within the Literacy lessons, the Partnership for Literacy (P4L) intervention Programme, devised by Dyslexia Action, is implemented and delivered in 1-1 sessions by the Teaching Assistant attached to the group, allowing for a more individualised phonic approach to improving reading and spelling for targeted learners.

 

Individual literacy lessons to develop reading skills are conducted for targeted Y7 learners who are not on the Applied Learning Pathway. These are delivered by Teaching Assistants. P4L materials may be used if appropriate, or learners may follow specific inference or comprehension programmes as required. In their individual sessions, learners can read openly in a calm environment, developing their confidence and skills. Teaching Assistants suggest appropriate reading material for the individual learner.

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Improving Numeracy

The additional Maths lessons within the Applied Learning Pathway are also highly multisensory and based on the specialist teaching principles of repetition and overlearning.  There lessons are designed to build confidence with skills such as number bonds, fractions and place values through engaging activities that stimulate learners. Any gaps in knowledge are identified early and addressed through tightly focused teaching. There is an emphasis in lessons on activity-based, practical learning with lots of opportunity for collaboration and problem-solving with peers. The ‘Numeracy Ninjas’ programme is used at the start of every lesson to help fill in any gaps in learners’ basic mental calculation strategies and develop the fluency to access concepts more fully. The ‘Times Tables Rockstars’ programme has also increased the motivation to learn times tables.

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What is the impact of the Year 7 Catch Up Premium?

 

The number of learners achieving their end of year targets in English and Maths who joined the school below expected standards either in English (Reading), Maths or both is outlined in the table below, as well as improvements in reading ages and standardised scores for those learners who were below expected standards for reading at the start of Year 7.

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Planned spend of Catch-Up Premium in 2019-20 - what are the priorities for this year?

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This year, Year 7 Catch-Up will be specifically targeted at those learners who achieve standardised scores of 95 or less in their end of Key Stage 2 tests in Reading and Maths. These learners will be supported in the following ways, as well as by using strategies and approaches already outlined above:

 

For Reading:

• Purchase of an IDL licence (online dyslexia and literacy programme that helps with reading skills)

• Purchase of a new license for the Access Reading Test or New Group Reading Test to measure progress in reading throughout the year and inform interventions.

• Purchase of a Reading Recovery programme, following a thorough review of available resources, feedback from other schools and best value analysis.

• Training for a group of KS4 learners and sixth form students to become reading buddies during registration/lunch time once a week.

• Implement strategies recommended by EFA project

 

For Maths

• Purchase of a staged online numeracy programme, again following a thorough review of available resources, feedback from other schools and best value analysis.

 

The school will also ensure that learners who came to us with slightly higher Key Stage 2 scores than those of Catch-Up learners, but who are still just below the expected standard, will receive the necessary support to make faster progress. Staff will be made aware that they did not quite reach expected standards in Key Stage 2 and may need targeted in-class intervention. Their progress will be monitored carefully and further intervention through 1-1, online or small group support will be provided if necessary.

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