Pupil Premium 2020-21 and Covid Catch Up
Our Pupil Premium Working Party met in November 2020, Richard Linsley has brought together the following highlights from the meeting and supporting documentation discussed.
- LA are currently conducting random school website audits - finance reporting is something new this year a link to benchmarking standards is needed. With regard to Pupil Premium, they found half the schools in NYCC did not have pupil premium information on their website at all, a small amount had the wrong information and under a quarter had the information, however it was not updated for this year.
- Schools had referenced Covid with regards to barriers to learning and achieving targets from last year.
We talked about having a section on your strategy statement to reference any 'carry over' of funds as, unlike the sports premium (spent by March,) this can be done. - As a result of monitoring visits from Ofsted some schools had been asked for specific areas in Maths and English where individual year groups had struggled on their return to school. It was suggested that this information could be used as a focus on the strategy statement and also the Covid Catch-up premium.
- We also discussed the importance of EEF guidance in referencing approaches to catch-up as it is rooted in a strong evidence base.
- Investment in technology seems to have been a positive strategy both for staff with laptops or screens or pupils, although DFE resources were sparse! Most Comps are using Google whereas primary schools are mainly using TEAMs - is there a long term aim to change?
- Investment in Staffing was another popular strategy with schools employing staff to improve access to High Quality Teaching and run catch-up sessions.
- Some schools are considering National Tutoring Programme in the Spring Term but dependent on costs.
- Discussion surrounded the curriculum and National Testing plus balancing support throughout the school and which year groups to focus on.
DFE Documents
Pupil Premium Effective Use & Accountability
DFE Strategy Statements Information
Education Endowment Foundation
COVID-19 Support Guide for Schools
The EEF Guide to the Pupil Premium
COVID-19 School support resources
Example Documents
Example Strategy Statement & Blank Statement
The Pupil Premium Working Party will be meeting each term, if you are interested in taking part in this working group, please contact Richard Linsley, Headteacher, Alverton Community Primary School - headteacher@alverton.n-yorks.sch.uk