Shakespeare Infant School has received the coronavirus (COVID-19) catch-up premium grant in academic year 2020 to 2021, to support children at our school.

• How much did Shakespeare Infant School receive for the academic year 2020-2021?

• How will the grant be spent?

• How will the effect of this expenditure on the educational attainment of pupils at the school be assessed?

Shakespeare Infant School Catch Up Plan 2020-2021

In August 2020, the Government announced additional funding for schools to deliver Catch- Up funding following the COVID 19 lockdown measures. This amounted to £80 per pupil. The amount allocated to Shakespeare Infant School based on eligible pupils is £20,560

The Education Endowment Fund (EEF) has provided early research evidence around projections for the impact of school closures during lockdown, predominantly on the impact for disadvantaged pupils. The school’s strategic response to devising and implementing the Catch- Up programme fully takes these findings into account. In summary, the EEF projections for the impact of widespread school closures identify;

• The disadvantaged attainment gap widens

• Assessment of lost learning is crucial

• Targeted support in addition to wider school initiatives are required

• Absence rates upon return are crucial

Effective home learning programmes have been found to mitigate the impact. Shakespeare Infant School provided a standard home learning offer for all pupils. There is an acknowledgement that whilst the take up of remote learning was strong, a significant number of pupils (including disadvantaged pupils) have had a prolonged period without face to face teaching and learning.

 The purpose of this report is to effectively plan the way the Catch-Up money will be spent over the coming year and enable us to inform parents, carers and governors of the impact it has on pupil achievement.

Catch Up strategy statement

Identified Vulnerable groups for gaps in skills and knowledge upon return in September 2020

‘CATCH UP’ CURRICULUM Autumn 2020

Our pupil’s well-being is the priority for our curriculum as we begin the new academic year. We have developed a whole school catch up plan for the full return of all pupils to school which revisits key knowledge and ensures full coverage of the broad curriculum. Within the first few weeks there will be a focus on the reinforcement of learning routines, our ethos and our learning values in order to rebuild relationships and re-establish a sense of belonging.

March 2021 - A child’s emotional state will build the person they grow into and strongly influence their behaviour on a daily basis. Children will feel a variety of emotions for different reasons. Sometimes, children may not understand the emotion they are feeling or how to deal with it. SIS will help to teach children how to identify the emotions they are feeling, why they are feeling this particular way and how to express and cope with these emotions. This will ensure our children are emotionally secure in order to continue their academic learning journey.  At this point in the year, after the third lockdown, we have a minimum sufficiency expectation to represent the breadth and depth of curriculum knowledge (skills, understanding and behaviours) that will enable our children to progress into the next year’s curriculum.

Google Classroom was used to deliver a blended approach to learning throughout lockdown and remains active for weekly home learning activities.   

Well-Being

Due to the current needs of our children we have enhanced our curriculum with the development of some new, whole school strategies to support pupil’s resilience, self-regulation and emotional literacy. These include mindfulness sessions which incorporate opportunities for the children to practise mindfulness and self-awareness. Across the school, projects and sessions are planned alongside our PSHE planning which encourages a positive mentality and time for children to connect with their inner emotions. Our mental health lead has undertaken further training due to the current need for pupil’s emotional support. The children will establish even higher standards of hygiene within their new classroom environment including increased, regular handwashing.

Review of Children’s Learning Needs

In order to give all pupils the support they need to catch up, we will be assessing the knowledge and skills that have been retained from the previous year. These assessments will be completed for all pupils within the first 2 weeks of the Autumn term. These assessments will be used to tailor our curriculum; revisiting and consolidating key skills and knowledge where needed. Children will be signposted to intervention and catch up where needed. We are aware of those pupils who were unable to fully engage with home learning during the Summer home learning and will also support these pupils to make accelerated progress through our catch up intervention plans. We have identified learning that was either ‘missed’ or will require further consolidation from the Spring and Summer terms. Our Autumn project planning outlines where these concepts and objectives will now be taught. In some areas this involves recapping concepts and lessons for the whole class, and in others this means offering pre-teaching, and personalised support to individuals or groups of pupils.

This academic year we will continue to use effective quality first teaching methods which support memory and mental recall across the curriculum. AFL strategies which are well-established will ensure that pupils continue to develop independence when reflecting on and improving in learning. Teachers will use teaching methodologies including focusing on metacognition within daily teaching and learning and will deliver a ‘catch up curriculum’ that allows for the appropriate development and re-call of essential knowledge and skills.

This review of children’s learning needs continues from 8^th March 2021 focusing on recoverable leaning, not lost learning. 

Our Ethos and Learning Values

 During the first half term we will re-introduce our daily routines for learning to all pupils. We will focus on the reinforcement of our Ethos and Learning Values and our Super Skills for Learning. This will support the children to settle and feel safe, familiar and confident in the school environment once again. Teachers will ensure that all pupils have time to practise the school’s expected procedures and expectations for learning such as the presentation of work, and peer and self-assessment in order to ensure that they once again feel independent to access learning in all areas of the broad curriculum.

Intervention ‘Catch Up’ Programme

Children will be allocated appropriate group or 1:1 intervention as identified from their baseline assessments in phonics, reading, number and writing. These interventions will be tiered according to need. Some children will receive support in a regular ‘in-class’ intervention sessions with their Class Teacher and Teaching Assistant. Some children may need to engage in a weekly ‘Catch Up lesson’ with an Intervention Teacher, using research-based interventions. Other interventions will be delivered by Senior Leaders and / or trained Learning Support Assistants, where pupils require more support. These will focus on Phonics, Reading, Maths - number knowledge/place value and writing. Writing support will be delivered within the class English session in order to ensure that pupils are not missing out on new learning. (All Interventions will be reviewed regularly and adapted according to the need and progress of the cohort).

We continue to use CT/LSA’s/SLT to deliver interventions where pupils require more support. 

Home-Learning Tasks

Homework has been updated in accordance with the Curriculum adaptation and will include specific tasks for individual children based on their unique learning needs including phonics and topic specific projects. There will be an on-going focus on spelling practice as this has already been identified as an area many pupils need to further develop in their writing. Reading Books will continue to be sent home weekly and pupils will also have access to books from the class library which they can choose for pleasure.

Collective Worship

We will carry out our daily collective worship within our Class bubbles this term. The Headteacher will also deliver class  assemblies in each class via Google Classroom.

 Parental Engagement and Support

Due to the current circumstances we are unable to deliver our usual ‘Welcome workshops’ instead we have communicated all information regarding the children’s new year groups to parents with a letter written by the new teachers via email and have created resources such as information power points which are accessible from our website. Although we are unable to have regular face to face discussions with parents we have an active email address for each class where parents can communicate with the class teachers. The Headteacher also has a separate email for confidential concerns which parents can use if needed. Telephone contact remains a valuable form of communication between parents and the school.

Remote Learning

In the event that a child must self-isolate due to ‘Test and Trace’ with no symptoms of Covid’19 or additional ailments, they will be provided with home learning in line with the class sessions for the week. In the event of a bubble or school closure, all children will access remote learning including recorded lessons by their teacher via the Google Classroom platform. In the event of a Class Teacher having to self-isolate with no symptoms of Covid’19 or additional ailments, they will teach live lessons, broadcasting to the whole class in the classroom with the Learning Support Assistant as the facilitator, via Microsoft Teams. (See our Remote Learning Policy for full information https://primarysite-prod-sorted.s3.amazonaws.com/shakespeareinfant/UploadedDocument/878ab1731a4b4f8e95ae044336809980/remote-learning-policy-sept-2020.pdf).

E-Safety

During the first 2 weeks of the Autumn term, all children have discussed the importance and current issues regarding Esafety in their class Computing sessions, as well as during their class assemblies. E-Safety will remain a key focus within school lessons as well as during any school closure periods of Remote Learning. During this year we anticipate that our children will be accessing the internet frequently and we will therefore continue to be support them to develop their knowledge of how to keep themselves safe online. This has also been communicated to parents in our Year Group welcome emails. Additional E-safety information and useful web-links for parents and carers are also accessible through our website.

We celebrated Safer Internet Day 9^th February with a clear focus on how to keep yourselves safe on the computer whilst at home.

Safeguarding governor completed e-safety monitoring visit via Teams/pupil conferencing

Outdoor Learning

Throughout the school we utilise opportunities for outdoor learning wherever possible so that children can explore the outdoor environment, link what they are learning to the natural world, and take part in stimulating real life challenges such as gardening and building. In these circumstances we will be making even further use of outdoor learning (especially in PE), in order to ensure that the children have enough personal space. Each class has an outdoor gardening area. Our Woodland school, pond area and EYFS outdoor learning environment are in use throughout the week. We have made arrangements so that every class can enjoy the playground space within their bubble each day. Zones are alternated on a weekly basis. 

We celebrated Outdoor Classroom/Mental Health awareness day on 1^st April 2021